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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Si. •^'^'^ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



INFANT BAPTISM 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY 



BY JOHN GILL, D. D. 



REYISEB AND EDITED 

BY GEORGE B. IDE, D. D. 



WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER BY THE EDITOR. 




:f llilKhl|r|iii. '!^^^ 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATIOlSr SOCIETY, 

118 ARCH STREET. 
18 5 1. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by iho 

AlVIERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

In tlie Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES, 

PRINTED BY KING & BAIRD. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

Introdtjctort 13 

CHAPTER 11. 
Relation of Infant Baptism to Popery 17 

CHAPTER III. 
Relation op Infant Baptism to Church Estab- 
lishments 55 

CHAPTER IV. 

Influence of Infant Baptism on Protestant 
Churches Historically developed 68 

CHAPTER V. 
Certain Extinction of Infant Baptism 110 



(3) 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 



Every tliouglitful observer must be aware, that 
the present aspects of Eomanism are as peculiar as 
they are portentous. While, as a political power, 
it is rapidly declining ; while its presence is endured 
with reluctance even in Italy itself: the ascend- 
ency of its dogmas and ceremonies, and their hold 
on the minds of men, seem to be strangely increas- 
ing. Withered and decrepid as a State, as an 
Ecclesiastical System it appears imbued with a 
singular and fearful vitality. Especially is this 
the case in Protestant lands. The dark shadow 
of its superstitions is seen returning over nations, 
from which it was once thought to have been ban- 
ished forever. In England, in Scotland, on the 
Continent of Europe, in our own free and enlight- 
ened America, Popery is extending its influence, 
and multiplying its triumphs. Its cardinals and 
bishops tread again the soil from which the Kefor- 

C5) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

mation expelled them. Its schools^ and churclies^ 
and convents; rise in every city and village. Its 
gaudy processions and impious mummeries are en- 
acted; without rebuke^ in the face of heaven. It 
boasts its converts gathered from every class and 
condition^ and exultingiy points to the long array 
of ^' the reconciled.^' And while it is thus enlarg- 
ing its numbers by direct accessions, it is viewed 
with growing favor by multitudes not of its pale. 
Infidels patronize it. Politicians fawn upon it. 
The gay and the voluptuous give it their suffrage. 
Mystics, enthusiasts, formalists, worldlings, all 
unite to countenance its pretensions, or, at least, 
to affirm its harmlessness. Even the professed 
churches of Christ oppose to it but a feeble barrier. 
The more corrupt fraternize with its spirit, ape its 
forms, and appropriate all of it but its name ; 
while the great mass of the more pure, however 
disposed to resist its encroachments, seem well nigh 
powerless to do so. 

How is this phenomenon to be explained ? In 
what manner may we account for the startling fact, 
that amid the blaze of science, the spread of educa- 
tion, the wide diffusion of intelligence, the awakened 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

spirit of inquiry and of progress — in lands blessed 
with an open Bible^ a free Gospel; and all the ap- 
pliances of religious instruction — an old, tottering 
Hierarchy^ foul with pollution, laden with abhorred 
memories; and reeking with the blood of murdered 
BaintS; should come forth from the gloom of the 
dark Past; and flaunting its tattered traditions in 
the eyes of the nineteenth century; be welcomed and 
embraced ? Must there not be some latent defect — 
some insidious weakness in the very heart of Pro- 
testantism itself; to render possible such a result ? 
We firmly believe that there is. And we are 
equally confident that we know what it is. The 
churcheS; which abjured Popery at the Reforma- 
tion; have retained; in the practice of infant bap- 
tism; the most vital element of Popery ; the prolific 
germ out of which it grew; the secret principle 
which has engendered all its baleful fruits, and 
which is ever tending to reproduce them. The 
essence of Popery lies in the assumption, that 
sacraments possess an intrinsic power to confer 
grace; and that; consequently, those who admin- 
ister them are constituted channels of intercourse 
and mediation between God and the souls of men. 



b INTRODUCTION. 

All the absurdities and abominations with which 
Komanism is characterized, are but developments of 
this central dogma; offshoots from this one poisonous 
root. But this also is the very core and substance 
of infant baptism. If its upholders do not regard 
it as the merest nullity — a rite as vapid and mean- 
ingless as it is unscriptural — they must ascribe to 
it some mysterious efficacy; some hidden and 
magical power ; by which it influences the spiri- 
tual state of its recipients, and brings them under 
moral relations different from those of others. Ac- 
cordingly, we find that wherever it is left to unfold 
itself freely — wherever it is not shorn of its natural 
proportions and accompaniments by contact with 
the advocates of primitive truth and order, — it al- 
ways appears in connection with baptismal regener- 
ation, infant church-membership, and sacramental 
holiness. And this is Popery. 

Here, then, is the rottenness of Protestantism. 
Here is the weak point in her defences, which lays 
her open to the inroad of the foe. Here is the 
wily agent of the Papacy within her very intrench- 
ments, paralyzing her strength, turning her weapons 
against herself, seducing her soldiers, and leading 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

them off to swell the hostile ranks. Never can she 
prosper in the struggle, till this dangerous inmate 
be unmasked and thrust out. As well may the 
stream be dried up, while the spring-head flows ; 
as well may pestilence cease, while malaria con- 
tinues to breathe its infection — as Popery die, 
while infant baptism lives. 

In this state of the moral conflict which is going 
on in our own and in other lands, it has appeared 
to the Committee of the American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society, that a reprint of the celebrated tract 
of Dr. Grill, entitled, ^^ In/ant Baptism a part and 
pillar of Popery ^^^ might be eminently seasonable 
and useful. Its author lived in an age resembling, 
in some of its aspects, that in which our lot is cast. 
A national Church, joined in unholy wedlock with 
the State, and Dissent, forswearing her troth to 
Christ by marrying herself with Tradition, had be- 
gun to bring forth their natural progeny; and 
Popery grew apace. The English government be- 
came alarmed. The partisans of the Establish- 
ment trembled. All sects and orders were filled 
with dismay, and united in the general demand, 
that more stringent penalties should be enacted 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

against the ingress of Popish emissaries, and the 
propagation of Popish tenets. At this juncture, 
Dr. Gill, surveying the crisis with his clear eye, 
and fathoming its causes with his keen and deep- 
searching logic, lifted up his warning voice, and 
showed conclusively, that the source of the evil 
did not lie in any freedom granted to Eomanists, 
but in infant baptism itself, which, nestled in the 
bosom of Protestantism, had diffused a Papal 
leaven through its entire body. 

It seemed to the Committee, that a production 
so influential in its own time, and SQ suited to the 
present, deserved something better, than to be 
swept away on the stream of the past, or to be 
searched out with difficulty in the scarce and dear 
volumes of the author^ s miscellaneous works. They, 
therefore, resolved to revise and publish it ; and 
appointed the writer of this notice to carry out their 
decision. 

On examination, however, it was found that while 
the reasoning of the treatise was cogent, and its 
thoughts massive and powerful, its style was such 
as greatly to unfit it for general circulation. Dr. 
Gill; with all his immense learning, was remark- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

able for his involved and slovenly mode of writing, 
even in an age when less heed was given than now 
to the graces of composition. The editor was, 
therefore, instructed by the Committee to make 
such changes in the literary execution of the work 
as might, in his judgment, adapt it to modern taste, 
and prepare it for more extensive usefulness. This, 
the reader is frankly apprised, has been done. 
While every thought and argument of the author 
has been scrupulously retained, and in the connec- 
tion in which he placed them, the language is al- 
most wholly new. The book has, in fact, been 
entirely rewritten ; and, in some cases, a fuller de- 
velopment has been given of topics deemed too 
briefly stated. The editor has also verified the 
authorities cited; added new ones; and inserted 
references to later editions where they exist. In 
a word, he has taken down " the sword of Goliath^' 
from '' behind the ephod,"* where it hung neglected 
— has stripped off its mouldy covering, wiped away 
its rust, polished its surface, and done his best to 
furbish it for the battle. It is true, he might with 
less time and labor have made a new sword. But 

'^* 1 Sam. xxi. 9. 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

then it could not be said of that^ as it can be of 
tliis, '^ There is none like it/' May it prove 
mighty for the Lord of Hosts, and for the over-r 
throw of tradition and error. 

G. B. L 



INFANT BAPTISM, 

A 

PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 
CHAPTER L 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Having been called upon to maintain cer 
tain statements which, in a recent publica- 
tion,^ I advanced with respect to infant 
baptism, or else to retract them, I readily 
undertake the former; and shall, therefore, 
in the ensuing treatise, endeavor to explain 
myself, and to defend the positions then taken. 
With this view, it will be proper first to recite 
the paragraph which has been so strenuously 
assailed. It is as follows: "The Pedobaptists 

« A Reply to Rev. Peter Clark's Defence of Infant 
Baptism. 

2 13 



14 INFANT BxVPTISM A . 

are ever restless and uneasy, struggling to 
sustain, if possible, their unscriptural practice 
of infant baptism ; although it is no other than 
a pillar of Popery ; a corruption, by which 
Antichrist has spread his baneful influence 
over many nations; which forms the basis of 
national churches and ecclesiastical establish- 
ments ; and which, uniting the church and the 
world, binds them together so firmly, that 
there can never be a full separation of the one 
from the other, nor any thorough reform in 
religion, until it be wholly removed. But, al- 
though it has so long and so largely obtained, 
and still does obtain, yet I believe, with a firm 
and unshaken faith, that the time is hastening 
on, when it will no more be practised in the 
world ; when churches will be formed on the 
model ordained by Christ, and observed by the 
Apostles ; when the doctrines and discipline of 
the Gospel will be restored to their primitive 
purity and lustre; and when the ordinances 
of baptism and the Lord's supper will be ad- 
ministered as they were first delivered, clear 
from all the superstitious admixtures with 
which later times have defaced them. All 
this, I am persuaded, will be accomplished, 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 15 

•when the Lord shall be King over all the 
earthj and there shall be one Lord, and His 
name one." 

The paragraph, thus cited, consists of several 
distinct propositions, which I shall endeavor, 
in the following chapters, to elucidate and 
establish. And if, in the course- of the investi- 
gation, any thing should be said that may 
seem to savor of severity, let it be remem- 
bered that all my remarks are directed against 
infant baptism itself, and not against the indi- 
viduals who practice it. For the evangelical 
denominations adhering to this custom, I 
cherish the highest regard. I recognize them 
as members of the body of Christ, and fel- 
low heirs with the saints. I rejoice in their 
general advocacy of the doctrines of the Gos- 
pel; in their Christian spirit; in their un- 
wearied labors to extend the kingdom of the 
Redeemer. But while I love and venerate 
them for their many excellencies, I do not the 
less deplore the one error by which those ex- 
cellencies are sullied. And I deplore it, not 
because it is fatal to their piety, and will ulti- 
mately bar them out of heaven ; but because, 
however honestly held, it nevertheless dis- 



16 INFANT BAPTISM A 

honors the authority of the Saviour whom they 
profess to obey, hinders the supremacy of His 
laws, and counteracts their own efforts to pro- 
mote it. May "the Spirit of truth" so en- 
lighten our minds, that we shall all know and 
receive " the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth/' 



PART AI^D PILLAR OF POPERY. 17 



CHAPTER II. 

RELATIO:^: OF INFANT BAPTISM TO POPERY. 

My first position is, that infant baptism is 
a part and pillar of Popery; and that by 
means of it Antichrist has spread his baneful 
influence over many nations. 

The phrase, infant baptism, is employed 
here and throughout this discussion, in ac- 
cordance with common usage, although pro- 
perly speaking, the practice to which it is 
applied, should be designated infant sprink- 
Hng. 

That unwritten traditions are regarded by 
Papists, as of equal authority in faith and prac- 
tice with the Holy Scriptures, none can doubt 
who are at all conversant with their writings. 
The Council of Trent asserts, that ''traditions 
respecting both faith and manners, orally de- 
livered, and successively preserved in the 
Catholic Church, are to be received with equal 
affection of piety and reverence, as the Books 

9^ 



18 INFANT BAPTISM A 

of the Old and New Testaments."^ Popish 
writers even prefer tradition to Scripture. 
Thus Bellarmine says; " The Scriptures, with- 
out tradition, are neither simply necessary nor 
sufficient ; but unwritten traditions are neces- 
sary. Tradition alone is sufficient; but the 
Scriptures alone are not sufficient."^ Another 
of their writers affirms, that "the authority 
of ecclesiastical traditions is more fit than the 
Scriptures, to ascertain any thing doubtful, 
even that which may be made out from Scrip- 
ture ; since ecclesiastical traditions and the 
common opinion of the church are clearer, and 
more open and truly inflexible ; while, on the 
contrary, the Scriptures have frequently much 
obscurity in them, and may be drawn hither 
and thither, like a nose of wax; and, as a 
leaden rule, may be applied to every impious 
opinion."^ Bailey, the Jesuit, thus expresses 
himself. " I will go farther and say, that we 
have as much need of tradition as of Scrip- 
ture ; yea, more, because the Scripture minis- 

J Session IV. Decreta de Canone Scripturae. 

2 De Verbo Dei, c. IV. Sect. 1, 6. 

3 Pigliius, apud Rivet. Cathol. Orthodox, Tract I, Quest. 
6. p. 99. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 19 

ters to lis only the dead and mute letter ; but 
tradition, by means of the ministry of the 
church, gives us the true sense, which is not 
had distinctly in the Scripture. In tradition, 
therefore, consists the Word of God rather 
than in the written letter alone. It is suffi- 
cient for a good Catholic, if he understands it 
is tradition; nor need he inquire after any 
thing else."^ 

By tradition, these Popish authorities mean, 
not tradition handed down in the Scripture, 
but without it, and distinct from it ; unwritten 
tradition, apostolical tradition, so called ; tra- 
dition, not delivered by the Apostles in their 
writings, but, as it is pretended, communicated 
by word of mouth to their successors, or to the 
churches. That we may not mistake them, 
Andradius tells us, that " of necessity, those 
traditions also must be believed, w^hich can be 
proved by no testimony of Scripture." And 
Petrus a Soto still more plainly and openly 
affirms ; " It is a rule infallible and Catholic, 
that whatsoever things the Church of Rome 
believes, holds, and keeps, which are not de- 

lApud Rivet, p. 142. 



20 INFANT BAPTISM A 

livered in the Scriptures, the same came by 
tradition from the Apostles ; also, all such 
observances and ceremonies, whose beginning, 
author, and origin are not known, or cannot 
be found, were, beyond doubt, delivered by 
the Apostles."^ This is the sense which Ro- 
manists attach to Apostolical tradition. 

Now, upon this assumed apostolical and 
ecclesiastical tradition, all the essential pecu- 
liarities of Popery are based. This is the 
prolific fountain from which they all spring. 
This is the standard to which they are all 
brought, and by which they are all confirmed. 
And what is there, be it ever so absurd or 
impious, that may not be proved by it, if once 
it be admitted as an authoritative rule ? It 
is upon this ground, that Papists assert and 
maintain the observation of Easter and Lent; 
the adoration of images and relics ; the wor- 
ship of the virgin Mary; the sign of the 
cross ; the invocation of saints ; the sacrifice 
of the mass ; transubstantiation ; the withhold- 
ing of the cup from the laity ; holy water ; ex- 

1 See the Abstract of the History of Popery. Part II. 
pp. 252, 253. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 21 

treme unction ; prayers for the dead ; auricu- 
lar confession ; the sale of pardons ; purga- 
tory ; pilgrimages ; monastic vows ; and other 
superstitious opinions and practices, more nu- 
merous than we have space to mention. 

Among pretended apostolical traditions, in- 
fant baptism is to be reckoned ; and here lies 
the chief support to which its advocates ap- 
peal. Origen, who lived in the former part 
of the third century, and who was the first^ 

*It has been asserted by Dr. WaU and otliers, that 
Irengeus^ who wrote about A. D. 178, was an advocate for 
infant baptism. The passage, from which this opinion 
has been drawn, is contained in his Treatise against He- 
resies, Book IL chap. 22, sect. 4. " Omnes enim venit per 
eemetipsnm salvare ; omnes, inquam, qui per eum renas- 
cuntur in Deum, infantes et parvulos et pueros et juvenes 
et seniores. Ideo per omnem venit aetatem, et infanti- 
bus infans factus, sanctificans infantes ; in parvulis, 
parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes aetatem, si- 
jnul et exemplum illis pietatis effectus et justitise et 
Bubjectionis; in juvenibus juvenis, exemplum fiens et 
sanctificans Domino. Deinde et usque ad mortem perve- 
nit, ut sit primogenitus ex mortuis, ipse primatum tenens 
in omnibus, princeps vitae, prior omnium, et precedens 
omnes." *'He" — that is, Christ — " came to redeem all by 
Himself; all, I say, who through him are regenerated 
unto God ; infants, little children, boys, young men, and 
older persons. Hence, He passed through every age, 



22 INFANT BAPTISM A 

ancient writer that distinctly approved of 
infant baptism, represents it as a tradition 

and for infants oecame an infant, sanctifj^ing infants; 
among little cMlcben He became a little child, sanctifying 
those of this age, and, at the same time, presenting to 
them an example of piety, of uprightness, and of obe- 
dience; among young men He became a young man, 
that he might set them an example, and sanctify them to ^ 
the Lord. Thus, He passed through even unto death, 
that He might be the first bom from the dead, Himself 
holding the primacy in all things, the Prince of Life, su- 
perior to all, and preceding all." 

It has been argued that Irenseus uses the expression, 
*' regenerated unto God," as equivalent to baptism; and 
hence, that as he employs the phrase in connection with 
infants, there is here a distinct recognition of infant bap- 
tism. If this were true, it would follow that our author 
is incorrect in afi&rming that Origen was the first of the 
early fathers who approved infant baptism, since Irenaeus 
lived more than half a century before him. That Dr. Gill, 
however, was aware of the existence of this passage, and 
had examined it well before he made the above statement, 
is proved by his own writings. In a treatise entitled, " In- 
fant Baptism an Innovation,^^ written previously to the 
one now reprinted, he says: *'I come next to the 
words of Irenasus, where he says, * Christ came to save 
all who by Him are born again unto God,' etc. In this, 
I shall notice only the sense of the phrase, * born again 
unto God,' and the injury that is done to Irenaeus, in 
making it signify baptism, or any thing else but the 
grace of regenerai'on. Christ and his Apostles no where 



!' 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 23 

from the Apostles. The words ascribed to 
him are these : " For this" — that is, for ori- 

call baptism by the name of tbe new birth; and the 
practice of so terming it among the ancients had not 
obtained in the time of Irenseus. The passage adduced 
from Justin Martyr does not prove it ; and those cited 
from Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria are too late. 
In Irenseus there are two passages in which it is pre- 
, tended that this expression denotes baptism. The one 
is where he says, *' Et iterum potestatem regenerationis in 
Deum dans discipulis, dicebat eis ; Euntes, docete omnes 
gentes. baptizantes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiri- 
tus sancti." '' And again, giving to his disciples the power 
of regeneration unto God, he said, *'Go, teach all na- 
tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Adv. Haeres, L. III. 
c. 11. By this power or commission, is meant, not 
authority to baptize, but authority to teach the doctrine 
of regeneration by the Spirit of God, and its necessity 
to salvation, and in order to baptism. This is the first 
and principal part of the apostolical commission, as the 
order of the words show ; and it is most reasonable to 
think, that he should so call the commission, not from its 
more remote and less principal part, but from its first 
and more important one. The other passage is where he 
speaks of certain heretics, as having been seduced to the 
denial of '* the baptism of regeneration unto God." L. I. 
c. 21, 1. But this shows rather, that baptism and rege- 
neration, though connected, are two different things, the 
former being a symbol of the latter ; just as the scrip- 
tural phrase, <'the baptism of repentance," means that 



24 INFANT BAPTISM A 

ginal sin — " the church has received a tradi- 
tion from the Apostles, even to give baptism 

baptism is sometliing different from repentance ; baptism 
being so called, because repentance is a prerequisite to 
it. For the same reason, it is called the baptism of re- 
generation, because regeneration is absolutely necessary 
to it. To all this I merely add, that Irengeus not only uses 
the word regeneration in a different sense from baptism 
elsewhere (see L. IV. c. 59, and L. V. c. 15) ; but in tho 
very passage now in dispute, he most clearly uses it in an- 
other sense ; since he says, " Christ came to save all who by 
Him are born again unto God ;" % Him, and not by bap- 
tism. This is explained by what is said of His sanctifying 
all sorts of persons, infants, little ones, young men, and old 
men ; which cannot be understood of His baptizing them ; 
for He baptized none, and, therefore, could not be said to 
regenerate any in that sense. To consider Irenaeus as 
referring here to baptism, is to make him utter a gross 
falsehood, viz., that Christ came to save such and such 
only as are baptized. Since, then, his words, without 
straining them, are capable of another sense agreeable 
to truth ; as that Christ came to save all who are regene- 
rated by His grace, — are we not bound to believe that this 
latter sense is his ? Indeed, to depart from this cl'ear, 
literal sense of his words, which contains a well-known 
truth, and to fix on them a figurative, improper one, 
which makes him say a monstrous untruth, is most cruel 
usage of the good old father." Gill's Tracts, Vol. II., 
pp. 389-392. London, 1773. 

Irenaeus, in the Book from which this controverted 
passage is taken, is arguing against the Yalentinians, a 



[ PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 25 

to infants."^' There is, however, little reason 
to regard the passage as genuine. A large 

Gnostic sect, who denied the actual incarnation of Christ, 
and asserted that His whole appearance on earth was a 
mere yision. In opposition to this destructive error, 
Irenseus affirms, that the divine nature of Christ entered 
into real and vital union with our humanity ; that He was 
truly man, living, breathing, speaking amongst men; 
and that, as the human race had been alienated from 
God by the fall of their first head, Adam, so Christ, by 
I)ecoming their second Head, had efiected their restora- 
tion. In order to achieve this. He became one of them ; 
identifying Himself with them in all their ages and con- 
ditions : comprehending within Himself, as their Repre- 
sentative, all classes; teaching and exemplifying the 
truth to all ; and, by His atoning death, bringing all into 
a new relation to God — a state in which mercy and grace 
were possible. To prevent misconception, however, the 
qualifying statement is added, that none would ac- 
tually attain the blessing of salvation by Christ, but 
those who should be regenerated by Him unto God ; or 
in other words, who should experience the transforming 
efficacy of His blood, applied by His Spirit. I am con- 
strained to believe, that the simple and entire meaning 
of Irenseus is, that Chi-ist came to save, and would save, 
all truly converted persons, of whatever age or rank; 

i"Pro hoc ecclesia apostolis traditionem suscepit, eti- 
am parvulis baptismum dare." Origen, Comment, in 
Epistolam ad Romanos, VI. Tom. 11. p. 543. 

3 



26 INFANT BAPTISM A 

portion of the works of Origen has perished; 
and those that still exist, have, for the most 
part, come down to us, not in the original 
Greek, but in a Latin translation by Rufinus, 
a writer of the fourth century, by whom they 
are known to have been extensively interpo- 
lated. So clearly has this been ascertained, 
that no judicious critic will place confidence in 
any writing of Origen, which is to be found 
only in the translation of Rufinus/ Augus- 
tine, who was a warm advocate for infant bap- 
tism, also, defends it as a custom of the 
church not to be despised, and as an apos- 
tolical tradition generally received.^ But as 
he was contemporary with Rufinus, he probably 

and that, consequently, there is not the slightest allusion 
to baptism in the whole passage. 

For similar views, though diifering in some particulars, 
the reader may consult two very able articles ; the one 
by Dr. Sears, in the Second Part of his Reply to Burgess 
on Baptism, in the Christian Review, Vol. III. pp. 208- 
213 ; the other by Dr. Chase, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 
Vol. VI. pp. 646-656.— Ed. 

» See Lardner, Works, Vol. II. pp. 482. 497. 

^ '*Hoc ecclesia a majorum fide percepit." Serm. X. de 
verb, apost. c. 2 ; De Genesis, Lib. X. c. 21 ; and De Bap- 
tismo contr. Donat. Lib. IV. c. 23. 24. 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 27 

took the hint of infant baptism being an apos- 
tolical tradition from the Latin translation of 
Origen made by the latter ; since no other 
ecclesiastical writer previously speaks of it 
in this manner. The uncertainty of any apos- 
tolical tradition in favor of infant baptism 
seems to be conceded by Jeremy Taylor, when 
he says,^ " Now a tradition apostolical, if it be 
not consigned with a fuller testimony than of 
one person, whom all after ages have con- 
demned of many errors, will obtain so little 
reputation amongst those who know that things 
have upon greater authority pretended to de- 
rive from the Apostles and yet falsely, that it 
will be a great argument that he is credulous 
and weak that shall be determined by so weak 
probation in matters of so great concern- 
ment."^ Yet it is by "a probation " thus 
^^weak," that many are "determined" in the 

1 Liberty of Prophesying. Works. VoL V. p. 552. 
Eden's ed. London, 1849. 

2 This quotation from Jeremy Taylor has not, perhaps, 
all the force which Dr. Gill seems to ascribe to it. The 
Bishop, in pleading for toleration to the Anabaptists, as 
he calls them, gives a summary of the arguments ad- 
duced in favor of infant baptism, and then of those which 
were urged against it. It is in the latter connection, that 



28 IXFANT BAPTISM A 

matter of infant baptism ; for not only do 
Popish writers, as Bellarmine and others, 
make it an unwritten, apostolical tradition, but 
even some Protestant Pedobaptists show a 
good will to place it among the unwritten say- 
ings of Christ, or of his Apostles ; and satisfy 
themselves with a supposition so gratuitous. 
Thus Mr. Fuller, a late Pedobaptist writer, 
says, " We do freely confess that there is 
neither express precept nor precedent in the 
New Testament for the baptizing of infants ; 
yet, as St. John tells us, that Jesus did many 
things which were not written/ for aught that 

tlie passage referred to occurs. He states it, therefore, 
as the opinion of the opponents of infant baptism, not 
as his OTTn. A much more satisfactory admission on the 
same point is afforded by Neander, in his Church His- 
tory, Vol. I. p. 314, Torrey's Translation. *'Origen, in 
•whose system, infant baptism could readily find its place^ 
declares it to be an apostolical tradition ; an expression, 
by the way, which cannot be regarded as of much weight 
in this age, when the inclination was so strong to trace 
every institution, which was considered of special im- 
portance, to the Apostles ; and when so many walls of 
separation, hindering the freedom of prospect, had al* 
ready been set up between this and the apostolic 
age. — Ed. 

I John xxi. 25. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 29 

iappears to the contrary, Infant baptism may 
have been one of tbem."^ In like manner, 
Mr. Walker argues, "It does not follow that 
our Saviour gave no precept for the baptizing 
of infants, because no such precept is parti- 
cularly expressed in Scripture ; for our Saviour 
spoke many things to His disciples concerning 
the kingdom of God, both before His passion, 
and after His crucifixion, which are not written 
in the Scriptures ; and who can say, but that 
among those many unwritten sayings of His, 
there might be an express precept for infant 
baptism?"^ And Mr. Leigh, one of the dis- 
putants in the Portsmouth Discussion, sug- 
gests, that " although infant baptism is not to 
be found in the writings of the Apostle Paul 
extant in the Scriptures, yet it might be in 
some writings of his w^hich are lost, and not 
now extant."^ All this is plainly giving up 

1 Infant's Advocate, p. 71, 150. 2 Modest Plea, p. 268. 

3 Narrative of the Portsmouth Disputation, pp. 16-18. 

We find Dr. Woods of Andover making a similar con- 
cession. In his Lectures on Infant Baptism, p. 11, he 
gays, *' It is a plain case, that there is no express precept 
respecting infant baptism in our Sacred Writings> The 
proof, then, that it is a divine institution must be made 

3* 



80 INFANT BAPTISM A 

infant baptism as contained in tlie Sacred 
"Writings, and placing it upon unwritten, apos- 
tolical tradition; and that, too, conjectural 
and uncertain. 



out in some other waj." What can this other way mean, 
but tradition ? It must surely be his intention to affirm 
that a rite was ordained by Christ, and practised by the 
Apostles, for which the Scriptures contain no precept. 
How can he know it ? "Whateyer he may call the channel 
by which he professes to have received the proof of such 
a fact, it resolves itself into tradition ; for to admit as of 
divine origin an institution concerning which the Bible 
is silent, is to give up the sufficiency of revelation, and 
accept the authority of tradition. Prof. Stuart, also, in 
the Biblical Repository for 1833, p. 385, says, *' Com- 
mands, or phiin and certain examples, in the New Testa- 
ment relative to it" — that is, infant baptism — " I do not 
find." And Dr. Neander, in his Planting and Training, 
p. 101, declares, *' As baptism was closely united with a 
conscious entrance on Christian communion, faith and 
baptism were always connected with one another ; and 
thus it is in the highest degree probable that baptism 
was performed only in instances where both could meet 
together, and that the practice of infant baptism was un- 
known to the apostolic age." In his Church History, Yol. 
I., p. 311, Torrey's Translation, he makes the same 
admission in still stronger terms. *' Baptism was at first 
administered only to adults, as men were accustomed to 
conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected. We 
have all reason for not deriving infant baptism from 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 31 

Now, infant baptism, with all the ceremon- 
ies attending it, for which also apostolical tra- 
dition is pretended, makes a very considera- 
ble figure in Popish pageantry. Romanists 
administer the rite with circumstances of great 
pomp and show ; such as the consecration of 
the water ; the presence of sponsors, who an- 
swer the interrogatories, and make the renun- 
ciation, in the name of the child ; exorcisms, 
exsufflations, crossings, the use of salt, spittle, 
and oil. Before the baptism, the water is 
consecrated with much solemn parade. First, 
the priest makes an exorcism ; breathing three 
times into the water in the figure of a cross, 
and saying, "I adjure thee, creature of 
water!" Then he divides the water after 
the manner of a cross, and makes three 
or four crossings. Next, he takes a horn 
of oil, and pours it three times upon the 
water in the form of a cross, and makes a 

apostolical institution." Now, if any trace of infant bap- 
tism were to be found in the New Testament, or in any 
writing pertaining to the first age of the church, it could 
not have escaped the searching eye of Neander, whose 
knowledge of primitive antiquity is admitted by all to be 
unsurpassed in depth and comprehensiveness. — Ed. 



32 INFANT BAPTISM A 

prayer, that the font may be sanctified, and 
the Eternal Trinity be present ; saying, " De- 
scend from heaven, and sanctify this water, 
and give grace and virtue, that he who is bap- 
tized according to the command of Thy Christ, 
may be crucified, and die, and be buried, and 
rise again, with Him/' 

The sponsors, or sureties, then recite on 
behalf of the child, the creed and the Lord's 
prayer, renounce the devil and all his works, 
and answer the questions put in the name of 
the child. The form of interrogation and 
reply according to the Koman ritual, is this ; 
"The name of the infant being called, the 
presbyter must say. Dost thou renounce Sa- 
tan? Answer, I do renounce. And all his 
works ? Answer, I do renounce. And all his 
pomps? Answer, I do renounce.'' Three 
times these questions are put, and three times 
the sureties answer. The interrogations are 
sometimes made by a priest, sometimes by a 
presbyter, and sometimes by an exorcist. The 
following question is also added, " Dost thou 
believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator 
of heaven and earth ?" To which the sponsors 
reply, "I do believe." 



PART AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 33 

Previous to being baptized, the infant is 
breathed upon, and exorcised, that the wicked 
spirit may be driven from it, and that it may 
be delivered from the power of darkness, and 
be translated into the kingdom of Christ. The 
following is the formula for this part of the ser- 
vice prescribed by the Papal code. " Let him — 
the minister, priest, deacon, or exorcist — blow 
into the face of the person to be baptized, 
three times, saying. Go out, thou unclean 
spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost, the 
Comforter." That of Gregory is slightly 
different. " I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost, that thou go out and 
depart from this servant of God." 

After the infant has been exorcised and 
blessed, salt is put into its mouth, as a token 
of its being seasoned with the salt of wisdom; 
and as an intimation that " by the doctrines 
of faith, and by the gift of grace, he shall be 
preserved from the corruption of sin, experi- 
ence a relish for good works, and be nurtured 
with the food of divine knowledge." The priest 
first blesses the salt after this manner, " I ex- 
orcise thee, creature of salt;" and then, 



34 rNTAXT BAPTISM A 

having blessed it. he puts it into the mouth of 
the infant, saving, '' Receive the salt of wis- 
dom unto life everlasting." 

The nostrils and ears of infants at their 
baptism are also touched with spittle by the 
priest, to indicate that their senses are opened 
to receive the savor of the knowledge of God, 
and to hear his commands ; and that " as 
sio:ht was criven to the blind man mentioned in 
the Gospel, whom the Lord, having spread 
clay on his eyes, commanded to wash them in 
the waters of Siloam. so by the efl5cacy of 
holy baptism, a light is let in on the mind 
which enables it to discern heavenly truth/* 
FoiTuerly spittle was put upon the eyes and 
the tongue ; but that part of the ceremony 
seems now to be laid aside. And yet no 
farther back than the birth of king James I, 
it appears to have been in use ; since, at his 
baptism, his mother sent word to Hamilton, 
archbishop of St. Andrews, who was to offici- 
ate on the occasion, to forbear the use of spit- 
tle, saying, " She would not have a pocky 
priest to spit in her child's mouth.'' * The 

' Abstract of the Historr of Popery, part I, p. 114. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 35 

prelate, it was well known, had led so licen- 
tious a life, as to have become diseased through 
his debaucheries. * In queen Mary's reign, 
the practice seems to have been common ; for 
when the martyr, Robert Smith, was asked by 
Bonner, in what particulars Papists dissented 
from the word of God in the administration of 
baptism, he answered; ''First, in hallowing 
your Avater ; in conjuring the same ; in bap- 
tizing children with anointing and spitting in 
their mouths, mingled with salt ; and with 
many other lewd ceremonies, not one point of 
which is able to be proved in God's order."^ 
All of which he calls ''a mingle-mangle,'' and 
"a shameful blasphemy against Christ." 

Chrism is another ceremony used both be- 
fore and after baptism. The parts anointed, 
are the breast, shoulders, and head; the breast, 
that no remains of the latent enemy may re- 
side in the person baptized; the shoulders, 
that he may be fortified and strengthened to 
do good works to the glory of God ; and the 

^ Vide Rivet, Animadv. in Grot. Armotat. in Cassan- 
der, Consultat, p 72. 

2 Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, voL III, p. 400. 
[VoL VIII. p. 351. Cattley's ed., London, 1838.] 






36 INFANT BAPTISM A 



headj to denote, " that from tlie moment of 
his baptism, he is united as a member to 
Christ, his Head, and engrafted on his body ; 
and that he is, therefore, called a Christian 
from Christ, as Christ is so called from 
Chrism." This anointing is made in the form 
of a cross. On applying it to the shoulders, 
the priest says, " Flee, thou unclean spirit, 
give honor to the living and true God." On 
applying it to the breast, he says, " Go out, 
thou unclean spirit, give place to the Holy 
Ghost." And \\^hen he applies it to the head, 
he says to the candidate, " I annoint thee with 
the oil of salvation, that thou mayest have 
life everlasting." 

The next ceremony is that of signing the in- 
fant with the sign of the cross. This is made in 
several parts of the body, especially the fore- 
head, eyes, and ears, to declare, that "by the 
mystery of baptism, the senses of the person 
baptized are opened and strengthened, to en- 
able him to receive God, and to understand 
and observe his commandments ;" and to sig- 
nify that he is now consecrated by the cross 
to the service of Christ, and to a manful re- 
sistance against Satan. In ancient times, 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 37 

honey and milk, or wine and milk, were given 
after baptism ; though the practice has now 
fallen into disuse. Infants were also admitted 
to the Lord's supper. This custom continued 
for several centuries in the Latin Church, and 
is still preserved in the Greek Church.^ 

Should the reader require proof of the use 
of these various observances, he may consult 
an able treatise "on the ancient rites and 
ceremonies of baptism," by Joseph Vicecomes, 
a learned Papist, as he is denominated by Dr. 
Wall ; where he will find them largely treated, 
and the authorities for them fully cited. These 
ceremonies are also fully rehearsed and con- 
demned by the ancient Waldenses, in a tract 
on Antichrist, supposed to have been written 
early in the twelfth century.^ 

1 For a similar account of tlie baptismal ceremonies 
practised by Romanists, see Cramp's Text Book of 
Popery, pp. 122-124. London, 1839.— Ed. 

2 Moreland's History of the Churches of Piedmont, p. 173 
To this treatise Perrin assigns the date of 1120. But 

as it contains quotations from the Scriptures with the 
division of chapters and verses ; which did not come into 
use until the latter part of the thirteenth century ; either 
the date is too early, or this division was afterwards in* 
troduced into it by some copyist. — Ed. 

4 



88 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

It may, perhaps, be asked, to what purpose 
is this account of the ceremonies observed by- 
Papists in the administration of baptism to 
infants, since they are not used by Protestant 
Pedobaptists ? I answer, it is to show what a 
prominent place infant baptism, with the osten- 
tatious ritual attending it, holds in the system 
Popery ; and that, being thus interwoven with 
its very structure, and contributing largely to 
its pomp and parade, it may with propriety be 
called a part of it. Besides, although the 
ceremonies above described are not all prac- 
ticed now by any class of Protestant Pedo- 
baptists, yet several of them are still retained 
by many who call themselves Protestants. Of 
this kind, are sponsors ; the interrogations 
made to them, and the answers given, in the 
name of infants ; the renunciation of the 
devil and all his works ; and signing with the 
sign of the cross. And since these and the 
others all claim apostolical authority, and most 
of them, if not all, have as good and as early 
a pretension to it as infant baptism itself; 
those, who admit that on this footing, ought 
to admit tJiese^ its adjuncts, also. On this 
subject the reader is referred to a treatise 



m 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 89 

by me, entitled. The Argument from Jlpos- 
tolieal Tradition in favor of Infant Baptism 
Considered, 

Most of the ceremonies which have been 
mentioned, are noticed by Basil, who lived in 
the fourth century, as then in use, and as 
derived, not from Scripture, but from tradi- 
tion. Speaking of the sign of the cross in 
baptism, he says, ^'We sign with the sign of 
the cross. Who has taught this in Scripture? 
We consecrate the water of baptism and the 
oil of unction, as well as him who receives bap- 
tism. From what Scriptures ? Is it not from 
private and secret tradition ? Moreover, the 
anointing with oil, what passage in Scripture 
teaches this ? Now a man is thrice immersed ; 
from whence is it derived or enjoined ? Also 
the rest of what is done in baptism, as the 
renouncing of Satan and his angels; from 
what Scripture have we it ? Is not this from 
private and secret tradition?"^ And, in like 
manner, Augustine speaks of exorcisms and 
exsufflations in baptism, as derived from an- 
cient tradition, and of universal use in the 

1 De Spiritu Sancto, c. 27. 



40 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

church/ KoTv, Viioever receives infant bap- 
tism on the ground of apostolical tradition, 
ought to receive these also, since they rest on 
precisely the same foundation. 

The various ceremonies noticed above, how- 
ever they may have been subsequently mo- 
dified and extended, all go back to a very 
remote antiquity. They are coeval with infant 
baptism itself, and some of them even pre- 
ceded it. Pedobaptism was fii'st recognized as 
an established institution of the church, in the 
early part of the fifth century. Several doc- 
tors in the preceding century had, indeed, 
espoused and asserted it ; and the practice 
had gradually spread, especially in North 
Africa. But it was not until the provincial 
council of Mileve, more correctly called the 
council of Carthage, held about, A. D., 418, 
that any canon was passed in its favor. This 
Bishop Taylor acknowledges.- Grotius also 
takes the same ground, and affirms this to be 
the first council in which the custom was men- 

^ De Peccato Orig. L. II. c. 40. De Xupt. et concup. 
L. I. c. 20: L. 11. c. 18. 

- Liberty of Prophesying. Works, Vol. Y. p. 652. — 
Eden's ed. 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 41 

tioned with approbation.^ And Augustine, in 
his book against the Donatists, written before 
the meeting of this council, while he asserts 
that the church had always held infant bap- 
tism, and that it was most rightly believed to 
have been delivered by apostolical tradition, ne- 
vertheless confesses that as yet it had not been 
instituted or sanctioned by the decree of any 
council.^ What, however, had not then been 
done, was effected soon afterwards, and, pro- 
bably, in a great degree, through his own in- 
fluence. At the council mentioned above, over 
which he himself presided, the following canon 
was enacted. '' Also it is our pleasure, that 
whosoever denies that new-born infants ought 
to be baptized — let him be anathema."^ The 
decrees of this council were sent to Pope In- 
nocent I., and by him approved ;^ thus identi- 
fying the then nascent Papacy with the earliest 
canonical sanction of infant baptism. If, then, 
this rite first received the authority of law 
from a Popish council, and was first confirmed 

1 Comment, on Matt. xix. 14. 

2 De Baptismo contra Donatist. L. IV. c. 24. 

3 Dupin's EccL History VoL I. p. 635. Dublin, 1623, 

* Madgeburg Centuriators, cent. V. c. 9, pp. 468, 473. 



42 INFANT BAPTISM A 

as an established rule by the Pope himself, 
may it not well be called a part of Popery ? 
The two are, in fact, indissolubly united — one 
in their origin, their growth, and their results. 
The same mother-heresy, — Baptismal Rege- 
neration — which gave birth to Popery, gave 
birth to Infant Baptism. They were engen- 
dered in the same dark womb of ignorance 
and superstition. They came forth together. 
They grew up together. Together they over- 
spread the nations. And together shall they 
disappear before the light of Christ's Gospel, 
and the brightness of his coming. 

Further, baptism by immersion, which for 
thirteen hundred years was generally observed 
in the Latin Church, and is still universally 
practiced in the Greek Church, was first 
changed into sprinkling by the Papists. 
This was not a mere change in the form of 
baptism. It was the abrogation of baptism 
itself. Por it is not, as some consider, a mat- 
ter of indifference whether much or little water 
be used in baptism. Immersion belongs to the 
very essence of baptism, and without it, there 
can be no baptism. As Sir John Floyer ob- 
serves, " it is no circumstance, but the very 



PART A^B PILLAR OF POPERY. 43 

act of baptism."^ The same writer also de- 
clares, that "aspersion, or sprinkling, was 
brought into the church by the Popish School- 
men, and that the English Dissenters adopted 
it from them. The Schoolmen employed their 
wits to find out reasons for the alteration to 
sprinkling, and brought it into use in the 
twelfth century."^ And it must be observed, 
to the honor of the Church of England, that 
it has not established sprinkling in bap- 
tism to this day; sprinkling being permitted 
only when it is certified, that the child is 
weak, and not able to bear dipping. In all 
other cases, the Rubric orders the priest to 
dip the child warily. The legal sanction of 
sprinkling in Great Britain came from the 
Presbyterians during the civil war. The West- 
minster Assembly of Divines decided for 
sprinkling against dipping by a majority of 
only one ; twenty-five voting for it, and twenty- 
four in opposition to it. On their recommen- 
dation, it was established by Act of Parliament 
in 1664.^ They borrowed it from Geneva; 



1 Essay to restore Dipping, p. 44. 

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. pp. 12, 22. 



44 INFANT BAPTISM A 

and Geneva borrowed it from Rome. That 
this innovation had its rise from the authority 
of the Pope, Dr. Wall himself acknowledges, 
when he affirms that the sprinkling of infants 
is from Popery. " All the nations of Chris- 
tians/' he says, " that do now, or formerly 
did, submit to the authority of the Bishop of 
Rome, do ordinarily baptize their infants by 
pouring or sprinkling. And though the Eng- 
lish received not this custom till after the de- 
cay of Popery, yet they have since received 
it from such neighboring nations as had begun 
it in the time of the Pope's power. But all 
Other Christians in the world, who never 
owned the Pope's usurped power, do, and ever 
did, dip their infants in their ordinary use."* 
Thus does it appear that infant baptism, both 
with respect to its subjects, and the mode in 
which it is now administered, may, with great 
propriety, be called a part and branch of 
Popery. 

But not only is it a part of Popery, and 
thus contributing to strengthen it, as a part 



^ History of Infant Baptism, Vol. II. p. 414. Oxford, 
1835. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 45 

does the whole ; it is, moreover, its pillar and 
main supjDort. It is the source from which 
Romanists, in contending with Protestants, 
draw the strongest arguments in favor of their 
traditions, and of the authority of the church 
to alter the rites of divine worship ; on which, 
as we have seen, the essential characteristics of 
Popery depend. Papal disputants sadly embar- 
rass Protestant Pedobaptists, when they bring 
forward infant baptism, and urge their oppo- 
nents to prove it by Scripture, both in its sub- 
jects and in its mode ; and if they cannot do 
this, then either to give it up entirely, or allow of 
unscriptural traditions and the authority of the 
church ; adding the perplexing question, that 
if they admit unwritten traditions and the 
custom of the church in one case, why do they 
reject them in others ? This way of arguing, as 
Mr. Stennett observes,^ was used by Cardinal 
Du Perron, in his reply to king James I., and 
by Mr. John Ainsworth against Mr. Henry 
Ainsworth ; and by Fisher, the Jesuit, against 
archbishop Laud. An instance of the same 
kind, he adds, is furnished in the controversy 

* Answer to Russen, p. 173, et sequitar. 



46 li^FANT BAPTISM A 

between Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, and a 
learned anonymous writer, said to be M. De 
La Roque, pastor of the Reformed Church at 
EoueUj in Normandy. The bishop, in order 
to defend the withholding of the cup from the 
laity in the Lord's supper, according to the 
authority of the church, urged that infant bap- 
tism, both as to subject and mode, was un- 
scriptural, resting solely on the authority of 
tradition and custom ; with which, neverthe- 
less, the pretended Reformed complied ; and, 
therefore, why should they refuse compliance 
in the other case? This reasoning called 
forth from his antagonist the ingenuous con- 
fession, that to baptize by sprinkling was 
certainly an abuse, derived from the Romish 
Church without due examination, as well as 
many other things, which he and his brethren 
were resolved to correct. He then thanked 
the bishop for undeceiving them ; and freely 
confessed that, in regard to the baptism of in- 
fants, there is nothing in the Gospel to justify 
the necessity of it; and that the passages 
produced only prove, at most, that it is per- 
mitted, or, rather, that it is not forbidden. 
An amusing incident of a similar kind is 



I 



PART AND PILL AH OF POPERY. 47 

told concerning a Mr. Jeremiali Ives, a Bap- 
tist minister, famous for his talent at disputa- 
tion, who lived in the time of king Charles II. 
The king having heard of his peculiar skill, 
sent for him to dispute with a Eomish priest. 
This he did, in the presence of the king and 
of many others, dressed in the habit of an 
Episcopal clergyman. Mr. Ives pressed the 
priest closely, showing that to whatever anti- 
quity Eomanists pretended, their doctrines 
and practices could by no means be proved to 
be apostolical ; since they are not to be found 
in any writings which remain of the apostolic 
age. The priest, after much wrangling, at 
last replied, that this argument of Mr. Ives 
was of as much force against infant baptism, 
as against the doctrines and ceremonies of the 
Church of Rome. To which Mr. Ives an- 
swered, that he readily granted what he said 
to be true. On this, the priest broke up the 
conference, saying, that he had been cheated, 
and would proceed no farther ; for he came to 
dispute with a clergyman of the established 
Church, and it was now evident, that this was 
an Anabaptist preacher. The behavior of the 



48 INFANT BAPTISM A 

priest afforded his majestyj and all present, 
not a little diversion.^ 

As Protestant Pedopabtists are urged by 
by this argument to admit the unwritten tra- 
ditions of the Papists ; so Pedobaptist Dis- 
senters are pressed, on the same ground, to 
comply with those ceremonies of the Church 
of England, which have been retained from the 
Church of Rome. Dr. Whitby employs this 
argument with special force, when, after having 
pleaded for some condescension to Dissenters, 
in order to reconcile them to the Church, he 
adds ; " And, on the other hand, if, notwith- 
standing the evidence produced, that baptism 
by immersion is suitable to the institution 
both of our Lord and His Apostles, and was 
by them ordained to represent our burial with 
Christ ; and so our dying unto sin, and our 
conformity to his resurrection by newness of 
life, as the Apostle clearly maintains the mean- 
ing of that rite ;^ if, I say, notwithstanding this, 
all our Dissenters" — Pedobaptist Dissenters he 
must mean — " do agree to sprinkle the bap- 

» Crosby's Hist, of the Baptists, Vol. IV. pp. 247, 248. 
8 Rom. Yi. 3-6. 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 49 

tized infant ; why may they not as well sub- 
mit to the significant ceremonies imposed by 
our Church ? For, since it is as lawful to add 
to Christ's institutions a significant ceremony, 
which He or His Apostles instituted, and use 
another in its stead, which they nerer did in- 
stitute ; what reason can they have to do the 
latter, and yet refuse submission to the former? 
And why should not the peace and union of the 
church be as prevailing with them, to perform 
the one, as is their mercy to the infant's body, 
to neglect the other ?"^ Thus infant baptism 
is used as the grand plea for compliance with 
the ceremonies both of the Church of Kome 
and the Church of England. It is, therefore, 
the chief prop of these Antichristian Hierar- 
chies — the final appeal to which they resort 
for countenance in their unscriptural practices. 
And so triumphant is this appeal, that no 
Pedobaptist Protestant or Dissenter has ever 
been able to stand before it. 

Further, it is by means of infant baptism 
that 'Hhe Man of Sin" has spread his baneful 
influence over many nations. This is abun- 

^ Protestant Reconciler, p. 289. 

5 



60 INFANT BAPTISM A 

dantly evident from the fact, that through the 
christening of children, introduced by him, he 
has made whole nations nominally Christian, 
and has applied to them the designation of 
Christendom ; thus extending the limits of his 
universal church, over which, as the pretended 
Vicar of Christ on earth, he claims absolute 
power and authority. By the same means, he 
retains his influence over these nations, keeps 
them in awe of his spiritual prerogatives, and 
holds them in servile subjection to his will. 
With this view, he sedulously inculcates the 
pernicious dogma, that, by their baptism, re- 
ceived in infancy, they are brought into the fold 
of the church, within which there is salvation, 
and out of which there is none ; and that, there- 
fore, if they renounce their baptism, or aposta- 
tize from the church, they consign themselves to 
inevitable damnation. Thus, by his menaces 
and anathemas, he maintains his usurped do- 
minion over the submissive and trembling 
nations. And if, at any time, one of these 
nations has courage to oppose him, and to act 
in disobedience to his mandates, he immedi- 
ately lays it under an interdict ; suspending 
the sacraments, all public prayers, burials, 



& 



' 



PART AND PILLAR OP POPERY. 51 

and christenings ; closing the churches ; and 
forbidding the clergy to administer their func- 
tions to any but those who, at a great price, 
purchase the privilege from Rome.^ By a 
superstitious dread of these prohibitions, par- 
ticularly that which withholds baptism from 
children, nations are induced to comply with 
the demands of the Papal power, however 
oppressive and tyrannical they may be. For 
it appears most dreadful to parents, that their 
children should be deprived of baptism, by 
which, as they are taught to believe, they are 
made Christians, and without which there is 
no salvation. Hence whole kingdoms have 
been known to yield to the most arbitrary 
exactions of Rome, rather than lose what is 
deemed so very important. What a tremendous 
influence, therefore, must infant baptism give to 
Popery ; and how cunningly is it adapted to 
uphold its power. 

But the baneful influence, which Antichrist 
has extended over the nations, through infant 
baptism, is yet further seen in that poisonous 

^ Abstract of tlie History of Popery, Part I. p. 463. 
Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, VoL 1. p. 326. 



62 INEAXT BAPTISM A 

notion, propagated by him, that the sacra- 
ments, and especially baptism, confer grace 
by their intrinsic efficacy; " ex opere operate? 
from the mere fact of their administration. In 
other words, he has taught that baptism takes 
away sin, regenerates men, and saves their 
souls. This is charged upon him by the 
ancient Waldenses, in the treatise on Anti- 
christ, to "which I have already referred. 
Speaking of the corruptions of the Papal 
Hierarchy, they say : " The third work of 
Antichrist consists in this, that he attributes 
the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit to 
the dead, outward act of baptism. In this 
faith, he baptizes children, teaching that sal- 
vation is thus to be obtained. On this ground, 
he confers orders and other sacraments ; and 
thereon builds all his Christianity. All which 
is against the Holy Spirit."^ 

The same Popish notion is argued against 
and exposed by Robert Smith, the martyr, in 
his examination before Bonner. In reply to 
a statement of the latter, that " infants are 
damned, if they die without being baptized," 

* Morland's Hist, of tlie Cliurclies of Piedmont, p. 148. 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 53 

he asked this question ; '^ I pray, you, my lord, 
show me, are we saved by water or by Christ ?" 
To which Bonner answered, "By both." 
"Then," said Smith, "the water died for our 
sins, and so must ye say that the water hath 
life, and it being our servant, and created for 
us, is our Saviour. This, my lord, is a good 
doctrine, is it not ?"^ 

The leaven of this old and destructive error 
yet remains even in some Protestant churches, 
w^hich have retained it from Rome. Hence a 
child, when baptized, is declared to be rege- 
nerate, and thanks are returned to God, that 
it is regenerate. And when it is capable of 
being catechised, it is taught to say that, in 
its baptism, it was made a child of God, a 
member of Christ, and an inheritor of the 
kingdom of heaven. Such instruction cannot 
but have a powerful tendency to take off all 
concern from persons when grown up, respect- 
ing any vital change of heart, as necessary 
to prepare them for heaven ; and to encourage 
in them the fatal presumption, that, notwith- 
standing their evident want of grace, they yet 

'Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, Vol. Ill, p. 400 
[Vol. VIL p. 352, Cattley's edition, London, 1838.] 

5* 



54 INFANT BAPTISM A 

are members of Christ, and shall never perish 
— are children and heirs of God, and, there- 
fore, must certainly inherit eternal life. The 
father of lies himself, as Dr. Owen justly ob- 
serves,^ could not have devised a more perni- 
cious doctrine, or one more calculated to insure 
the final ruin of the soul. If, then, through 
infant baptism, this fatal heresy reigns su- 
preme in lands Papal, and is still widely dif- 
fused and powerful in lands Protestant, are we 
not warranted in saying, that by means of 
infant baptism Antichrist has spread his bane- 
ful influence over the nations ? 

1 Theologoumena, L. VI. c. III. p. 477. 



PART AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 55 



CHAPTER III. 

RELATION OE INFANT BAPTISM TO CHURCH 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 

Nothing can be more evident than that 
infant baptism is the basis of national churches, 
and, therefore, the parent of all the mischiefs 
which arise from the unhallowed union of the 
spiritual and the profane in the same religious 
community. If a church be national, it is of 
course, composed of all the men, women, and 
children in the nation, who have not volunta- 
rily withdrawn from it. Of such a church 
children are originally members, either by 
birth, and as soon as they are born, being born 
in the church ; that is, in a Christian country, 
which is the church ; or rather by baptism, as 
it is generally expressed. Thus, according to 
the order of the Episcopal Church, at the bap- 
tism of a child, the minister says, '' We re- 
ceive this child into the congregation of 



66 INFANT BAPTISM A 

Christ's flock. "^ By the Assembly of Divines, 
baptism is called " a sacrament of the New 
Testament, whereby the parties baptized, are 
solemnly admitted into the visible church/'^ 
To this, however, there is a strange contradic- 
tion in the next answer of the catechism,^ 
where it is said, that ''baptism is not to be 
administered to any that are out of the visible 
church." But if persons, are solemnly ad- 
mitted by baptism into the visible church, then 
before baptism they must be out of it. One 
or the other must be wrong. Either persons 
are not admitted into the visible church by 
baptism, or if they are, then before baptism 
they are out of it, and receive baptism in or- 
der to be admitted into it. Calvin, according 
to whose plan of church government at Geneva 
that of the Scotch Church was modelled, de- 
nominates baptism '' a solemn introduction into 
the church of God." And Mr. Baxter argues, 
that " if there be neither precept nor example 
of admitting church members in all the New 

I Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
^Larger Catechism, p. 337. Phila. Pres. Board of Pub- 
lication. 
3Ibid. p. 338. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 57 

Testament but by baptism, then all that are 
now admitted ought to come in by baptism. 
But there is neither precept nor example in 
all the New Testament of admitting church 
members but by baptism. Therefore, they 
ought to come in the same way now." So 
then infants, becoming members of a national 
church by baptism, are originally of it, and 
constitute the materials of which it is com- 
posed. It is, in fact, by the baptism of infants, 
that a national church is supplied with mem- 
bers, and is supported and maintained. Hence, 
it may be truly said, that infant baptism is the 
foundation of a national church, and is, in- 
deed, the very sinews, strength, and life of it. 
And infants, having been thus admitted mem- 
bers by baptism, continue such when grown 
up, even though most dissolute in their con- 
duct, as multitudes of them are. Many, in- 
stead of being treated as church members, 
deserve to be sent to the House of Correction 
— a punishment which some of them receive ; 
and others are guilty of such flagitious crimes, 
that they die an infamous death. Yet even 
these die in the communion of the church. 



58 INFANT BAPTISM A 

And thus the church and the world are united 
and kept together till death doth them part- 

The Independents, according to their prin- 
eipleSj would indeed separate the church and 
the world. But, in practice, they cannot do 
it, being fettered and hampered by infant 
baptism and infant membership. The embar- 
rassment which this subject occasions them, 
appears from the great diversity of opinions 
which they entertain respecting it, and from 
the endless inconsistencies in which it involves 
them. They seem sadly at a loss what to do 
with infant baptism, or where to place it. 
Some place it on the interest of the infant in 
the covenant of grace. But here they often 
contradict themselves and one another. At 
one time they say it is interest in the cove- 
nant of grace which gives infants a right to 
baptism ; at another, that it is by baptism 
they are brought into the covenant ; and then 
again, that it is not in the inward part of the 
covenant that they are interested, but only in 
its external part, where hypocrites and grace- 
less persons may be ; but what that external 
part is, no mortal can tell. Others, not feeling 
so certain that their infant seed, as such, are 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 59 

all interested in the covenant of grace, say it 
is not that, but the church covenant into which 
godly parents enter, which gives their chil- 
dren with them a right to church membership 
and baptism. Children in their minority, it 
is said, covenant with their parents, and so 
become church members, and this entitles 
them to baptism ;^ for, according to the ori- 
ginal theory of the Puritans of New England, 
none but members of a visible church were to be 
baptized f though Dr. Godwin is of a different 
opinion.^ Hence only such as were children of 
parents in regular connection with the church 
were admitted to baptism.* In the case of ex- 
communicated members, the children born dur- 
ing the period of their excommunication, might 
not be baptized.^ Children, when baptized, were 
not considered confirmed members, until they 

' Disputation concerning churcli members and their 
cMldren at Boston, p. 12, 13. Hooker's survey of Church 
Discipline, Part IIL, pp. 24, 25. 

2 Cotton's Way of the Churches in New England, p. 81. 
Boston Disputation, p. 4. Defence of the Nine Proposi- 
tions, p. 115. 

3 Government of the Churches of Christ, p. 337. 
^ Defence of the Nine Propositions, p. 69. 

s Cotton's Way, p. 85. 



60 INFANT BAPTISM A 

professed faith and repentance ;* yet, during 
their minority which, after the example of 
Ishmael, reached till they were about sixteen 
years of age, they were regarded as real mem- 
bers to such intents and purposes, that if their 
parents were dismissed to other churches, their 
names were to be inserted with them in the 
letters of dismission.^ They were also viewed, 
while their minority continued, as under the 
watch and care of the church, and subject to 
its admonitions and censures, with a view to 
their moral correction and improvement;^ 
though not in such a way as to render them 
liable to public discipline and excommunica- 
tion.* 

The original Puritans thought, that by the 
covenant seed, who have a right to baptism 
and church membership, were meant only the 
seed of parents in immediate fellowship with 
the church, and not of progenitors more re- 
mote.^ Mr. Cotton says, "Infants cannot 
claim right to baptism but in the right of one 

* Cotton's Holiness of chnrcli members, p. 19. Boston 
Disputation, p. 3. 
2 Ibid. p. 15. 3 Cambridge Platform, p. 18. 
^ Boston Disputation, p. 14. ^ n^i^L p. 19. 



PAET AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 61 

of their parents or both ; where neither of the 
parents can claim nght to the Lord's supper, 
there their infants cannot claim right to bap- 
tism."^ Afterwards, however, he qualifies 
this statement by observing, ''It may be con- 
sidered, whether the children may not be bap- 
tized, where either the grandfather or grand- 
mother have made profession of their faith 
and repentance before the church, and are 
still living to undertake for the christian edu- 
cation of the child ; or if these fail, what hin- 
ders but that if the parents will resign their 
infant to be educated in the house of any 
godly member of the church, the child may 
be lawfully baptized in the right of its house- 
hold governor."^ But Mr. Hooker asserts, 
that " since children as children have no right 
to baptism, it belongs not to any predecessors, 
whether near or remote, to confer a right to 
this privilege."" In the term, predecessors, 
he includes all except the parents themselves ; 
such as grand parents, great grand parents, 
etc. Thus, too, the ministers and messengers 

1 Cotton's Way of Churches, p. 81. 2 ji^i^^ 115, 
3 Survey of Church Discipline, part III. p. 13, 

6 



62 INFAXT BAPTISM A 

of the Congregational Churches that met at the 
Savoy, declare, that "not only those, who do 
actually possess faith in Christ, and obedience 
to Him, are to be baptized ; but also infants, 
one or both of whose parents are believers, 
are to be admitted to the ordinance, and 
thoae only."^ 

Among the commissioners appointed to re- 
view the Book of Common Prayer, in the be- 
ginning of the reign of Charles II., those of 
the Presbyterian persuasion brought for- 
ward the following motion: "Whereas, there 
are divers learned, pious, and peaceable minis- 
ters, who judge it unlawful to baptize not only 
children whose parents are atheists, infidels, 
heretics, or unbaptized, but also such whose 
parents are excommunicated persons, fornica- 
tors, or otherwise notorious and scandalous 
sinners ; we desire that they may not be en- 
forced to baptize the children of such, until 
they have made an open profession of their 
repentance before baptism."^ At the present 
day, however, the churches of this denomina- 
tion, except in a few instances, do not adhere 

^ Declaration of Faith and Order. Chap. xxix. p. 48. 
2 Proceedings of the Commissioners, p. 22. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 63 

to the principles and practices of their prede- 
cessors ; but admit to baptism, not only the 
children of church memberSj but of those who 
are not; and, indeed, the children of any, 
whether religious or irreligious, who may ap- 
ply to them for that purpose/ 

But supposing that, in all cases, none but the 
children of parents in full communion with the 
church were admitted to baptism — would this 
remedy the evil ? What are such children ? 
No better than others. Like all others, they 
are born in sin, carnal and depraved. They 
belong to the world, notwithstanding their re- 
ligious parentage, until they are called out of 
it by the effectual grace of God. As they 
grow up, they show themselves to be of the 
world, living in accordance with its principles, 
and manifesting the same sinful and corrupt 
nature which others exhibit. Some of them 
even become grossly immoral. Yet no notice 
is taken of them in the way of censure or ex- 
pulsion; but they retain their membership, 

1 This must be understood as having special reference 
to the Presbyterians of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 
It is not true, at least in its full extent, of this excel- 
lent denomination of Christians in our own country. — Ed. 



64 IXFANT BAPTISM A 

into which they were brought in their infancy, 
and continue in it to the day of their death. 
And if this be not uniting and keeping the 
church and the world together, I know not 
what 



IS 



1 



The support which infant baptism lends to 
worldly and national churches, is moreover 



' Who can estimate the mischiefs which have sprung 
from such a union ? AYhat incalculable injury has been 
done to the souls of those, who have thus been trained up 
in the persuasion, that, by their baptism in infancy, they 
are incorporated into the Church of Christ, invested with 
a special interest in the covenant of Grace, and made the 
peculiar objects of the Divine favor! And what immense 
evils have thereby been inflicted on the cause of the Sa- 
viour ! How has the lustre of His Gospel been dimmed, 
its strength weakened, and its progress delayed ! And 
how has His blood-bought Church, ordained by Him to 
be the fold of His sheep — the home of the renewed — in 
the world, but not of it — ^been robbed of its true function, 
by being converted into a common receptacle for the pure 
and the impure ; a great drag-net, inclosing all alike ! 
Infant baptism tends directly to amalgamate the church 
with the world. It fills it with secular elements ; sub- 
jects it to the control of unregenerate men; surrounds 
it, where circumstances are favorable, with civil en- 
dowments, patronage, and power ; and thus transforms 
the Bride of Christ into the bedizened courtesan of the 
State!— Ed. 



ART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 65 

evident from the fact that it practically nul- 
lifies all the arguments J which are commonly- 
adduced to show their unscriptural character. 
It is saidj and said truly, in opposition to such 
organizations, that the members of a visible 
church are represented in the New Testament 
as '^a spiritual seed" — ''livelj stones," — 
^^ called to be saints" — such as, in the judg- 
ment of enlightened charity, may be accounted 
sincere believers. But are baptized infants 
of this description? The holiness attributed 
to them, is only a federal holiness, and that 
altogether chimerical. Are they saints by 
efi'ectual calling? Can they, on scriptural 
grounds, be deemed holy ? Do they possess 
the qualities which, in the New Testament, are 
invariably ascribed to church members ? And 
if they cannot, even in the widest charity, be 
regarded as saints, and yet are admitted by 
baptism into the church, why may not others 
be so admitted, of whom it cannot be declared 
that they are regenerate persons ? 

Besides it is correctly affirmed by the Inde- 
pendents, that members of Gospel churches 
are not only such as have been called by the 
Spirit of God, but such as manifest their obe- 
6* 



66 INFANT BAPTISM A 

dience to that calling by a corresponding pro- 
fession and conduct ; such, moreover, as are 
known to each other by their confession of 
faith wrought in them by divine power ; and 
such as willingly consent to walk together ac- 
cording to the appointment of Christ, giving 
up themselves to the Lord and to one another 
by the will of God, in professed subjection to 
the ordinances of the Gospel.^ Now do in- 
fants possess this character ? Do they evince, 
by an outward profession and walk, their obe- 
dience to a divine inward call ? If they do 
not, and yet are received as church members, 
why may not others be so received, who give 
no more evidence than they do ? Do they 
make a confession of faith wrought in them ? 
Does it appear that they have such a faith ? 
And is a confession made, and so made, as to 
be known by their fellow members ? If not, 
and yet they are received and owned as mem- 
bers, then why may not others be so recog- 
nized, who make no more confession than they 
do ? Do infants consent to walk with the 
church of Christ, and give up themselves to 

' Savoy — Declaration, p. 67, • 



PAUT AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 6T 

the Lord and to one another, and profess to be 
subject to the ordinances of the Gospel? If 
they do not, as most certainly they do not, and 
yet are acknowledged as members, why may 
not others be acknowledged as members on the 
same footing ? Is it objected to a national 
church, that persons of the worst characters 
are members of it, and that by this means the 
church is filled with men very disreputable 
and scandalous in their lives ? And is not this 
true of those in congregational churches, who, 
admitted as members in their infancy, when 
grown up are very wicked and immoral, and 
yet their membership continues ? Why, then, 
may not national churches be tolerated, not- 
withstanding the above objections ? From all 
these reasons, therefore, I deem myself fully 
warranted in saying, that there cannot be a 
complete separation of the church from the 
world, nor any thorough reformation in reli- 
gion, until infant baptism is wholly removed. 



68 INFANT BAPTISM A 



CHAPTER IV. 

INFLUENCE OF PEDOBAPTISM ON PROTESTANT 
CHURCHES HISTORICALLY DEYELOPlll). 

[by the editor.^] 

A SEARCHING inquiry into the effects of in- 
fant baptism on Protestant communities, would 
furnisli most instructive, though painful results. 
Such an investigation, impartially conducted, 
"would soon show, that this corruption, wher- 
ever it is not restrained by antagonistic causes, 
always tends to Romanism, or to Rationalism. 
In some soils, and under some influences, it 

* At the period when Dr. Gill wrote, the influence of 
Pedobaptism on the churches of the Reformation had 
only begun to show itself. That influence has since 
been much more fully manifested. The editor was, there- 
fore, requested to prepare and insert a chapter on this sub- 
ject, containing the substance of what we may well sup- 
pose Dr. Gill would have said, had he lived in our day 
and seen what we have seen. As the chapter thus pre- 
pared is closely related to the preceding argument, and 
depends upon it, it was thought better to publish it in 
this connection than in an independent form. — Ed. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 69 

becomes the prolific seed of all that is most 
baleful in the Papal system. Such was its 
development in the ancient church. Germina- 
ting first in North Africa, the hot-bed of super- 
stition and asceticism, it was quickly trans- 
planted into Egypt, where it thrived luxuri- 
antly among the dreamy speculatists of 
Alexandria. Thence it spread throughout the 
Eastern and Western empires, growing up, side 
by side, with reverence for the outward and 
the tangible in religion ; the love of imposing 
ceremonies ; the adoration of saints and relics ; 
the worship of images ; prelatic power, and 
priestly domination ; until, at length, the Ro- 
man Hierarchy, propped and buttressed by 
infant baptism, cast its shadow over the na- 
tions. 

Similar has been its tendency in the Church 
of England. At the period of the Reforma- 
tion, the aspect of this Church was, in some 
respects, bright with promise. Her creed was, 
in the main, eminently evangelical. Her early 
teachers were men of great Scriptural know- 
ledge, of fervent piety, and unblemished lives. 
A large portion of her laity was also pervaded 
by a growing love for a pure Gospel. But 



70 INFANT BAPTISM A 

"while she abjured the supremacy of Rome, 
abolished the mass, and purged out the grosser 
abominations of Popery ; yet, by adhering to 
infant baptism, with its natural concomitants, 
Episcopacy, and a State-Establishment, she 
retained a principle which was calculated to 
undo all her work, and revive within her owi^ 
communion the most essential characteristics 
of the "Man of Sin/' The sphere, in which 
this insidious leaven was thus left to operate, 
was particularly fitted to develop its influence. 
The national mind of England, either from 
constitutional structure, or the long schooling 
of circumstances, has a strong papistic ele- 
ment. Sturdy and independent in matters of 
civil polity, it evinces a strange propensity to 
be led in religion. It bows to authority. It 
trembles before august names, and lofty pre- 
tensions. It is fond of pomp and external 
show. It venerates the time-honored, the far- 
descended. In such a state of society, infant 
baptism found a congenial home, and free 
scope to work out its Popish tendencies. And 
how successfully it has done so, the present 
religious position of that country clearly 
shows. The land which, around the martyr- 



PART AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 71 

fires of Smithfield, swore eternal hatred to 
Popery, is now full of Popish dignitaries. 
Popish priests, and Popish proselytes. The 
Church, for which reformers toiled, and con- 
fessors bled, is Papal all but in name. There 
are, indeed, many pious, evangelical men still 
■within her pale ; and the echoes of the Refor- 
mation have not yet wholly died away in her 
sanctuaries. But the spirit that animates her, 
the impulses which guide her, the doctrines 
and ceremonies which she best loves, bear 
throughout the unmistakable features of Ro- 
manism. Shocked by the introduction of 
dogmas and rites, wearing the abhorred livery 
of Antichrist, Gospel Truth, and vital Faith, 
and Scriptural Piety, are forsaking her altars, 
saying, " Let us depart ; this is not our rest ; 
it is polluted." It is true, that she now mani- 
fests much alarm and exasperation at the bold 
encroachments of the Papacy, and is rousing 
herself to resist its endeavors to get posses- 
sion of her island-throne. But there is no 
opposition to the principles of Romanism in- 
volved in the struggle. It is simply a contest 
between two kindred Hierarchies, the one 
seeking to extrude or absorb the other. It is 



72 INFANT BAPTISM A 

the Mother striving to unseat the Daughter. 
The sole question at issue is, whether Pius IX. 
or Victoria I. shall be Pope of England. The 
Pontiff of the seven-hilled City longs to wrest 
the crosier from the Pontiff of Buckingham 
Palace ; and the latter, like a true woman, has 
no intention of resigning her power. Here is 
the whole pith of the controversy. The 
bishops and clergy of the English Church, 
while they are straining every nerve to pre- 
serve her from the clutches of Rome, have no 
wish to purify her from the tenets of Rome. 
They are willing enough to trade in Popish 
wares, only they prefer to do it on their own 
account. 

To such a state of lamentable deprava- 
tion has one of the fairest jewels of Pro- 
testant Christendom been brought by the de- 
teriorating presence of infant baptism. This ■ 
has been "the dead fly in the ointment," that 
has sullied her purity, and tainted her fra- 
grance. This it is which, breaking down the 
fence between her and the world, and letting 
in upon her all its ungodliness, has filled her 
once green and nourishing pastures with goats 
instead of sheep, with wolves instead of shep- 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 73 

herds. This it is, which has chanf^ed her 
wholesome teachings into soul-destroymg er- 
rors, transformed her worship into a beggarly 
imitation of Popish vanities, and reduced her 
whole Christianity to the mere observance of 
forms and sacraments. Such a church may 
continue to be Protestant in name ; but, in 
essence, it is completely Romanized. 

An example of the workings of infant bap- 
tism in a direction different, indeed, but 
equally mischievous, may be seen in the theo- 
logical history of Germany. Luther rolled off 
from the great truths of the Gospel the mass 
of perversions with which ages of Papal dark- 
ness had overlaid them. He brought out into 
clear light, and firmly established the cardinal 
doctrines of Atonement, of Justification by 
Faith, of Sanctification by the Spirit. He 
reformed much, but not enough to render the 
Reformation secure. And it is even a question 
whether he did more good by what he took 
away, or more evil by what he allowed to re- 
main. In his ecclesiastical system, he left in- 
fant baptism, and infant membership ; thus 
opening the church to the world, and uniting 
it with the State. He either did not perceive 
T 



74 INFANT BAPTISM A 

their unscriptural character, or deemed them 
comparatively harmless. Devoting his whole 
strength to clearing the rubbish from great 
principles, he judged it of little importance to 
remove the corruptions of an outward rite. But 
in this his wisdom resembles that of an archi- 
tect, who should lay a broad and deep founda- 
tion, and erect upon it a massive and lofty 
structure ; while, at the same time, he leaves 
unnoticed a small stream flowing silently be- 
neath it, that must inevitably sap the very 
ground on which it stands. Thus has it been 
with the work of Luther. The little rill of 
infant baptism, welling out from its Papal 
fountain, has slowly undermined the fabric 
which he reared, and virtually overturned it. 
For two centuries, indeed, the doctines which 
he taught were rigidly maintained. But they 
were held merely as a dead letter — a theologi- 
cal creed, for which men would buckle on the 
armor of controversy, but which had no place 
in their hearts, and no influence over their 
lives. This could not last. There came, at 
length, a change over the public mind ; a 
breaking away from old paths of thought, and 
a reckless pushing into new ones. The Church 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 75 

was ill prepared for the crisis. She was tho- 
roughly secularized. The world reveled and 
rioted in her bosom. The great majority of 
her members were unconverted. Even her 
pastors and theological professors were, in 
most instances, entirely destitute of any ex- 
perimental acquaintance with the power of 
Christianity. Such could have no inward wit- 
ness of the truth of the Gospel, and no illu- 
mination of the Spirit, to guide them in their 
inquiries. Hence, led by unsanctified reason, 
and a sceptical philosophy, they plunged into 
the wildest and most dangerous speculations. 
Nothing was regarded by them as proved. 
Their daring criticism strove to rend and 
dislocate the Bible ; to show that large por- 
tions of it were mere forgeries ; that the idea 
of its divine inspiration was but an enthusi- 
astic dream ; and that the entire histories of 
our Lord and of His Apostles were only pious 
myths. And this state of things has continued, 
until the Church of Luther — the eldest daugh- 
ter of the Reformation — has now, to a great 
extent, become a church of baptized unbe- 
lievers, crowded, in all her departments, with 
men who, while partaking her ordinances, and 



76 IXFAXT BAPTIS3I A 

filling her oSces, laugli her doctrines to scorn, 
and assail the authority of the very Scriptures 
from which they preach. Here and there, it 
is true, one of her sons may be seen strug- 
gling to oppose the rushing tide of infidelity, 
and lifting up his voice amid the Babel-clamor 
of rationalistic sects. But its tones are feeble 
and uncertain ; he himself is not free from in- 
fection : and, in spite of his weak resistance, 
the pestilence strides on. 

As these sceptical views are thus embraced 
and advocated by the appointed expounders 
of Christianity, it might well be expected that 
they would obtain wide currency among the 
people themselves. And such is the fact. In 
Germany, all belong to the church, having 
been baptized into it in their infancy, and af- 
terwards confirmed in their membership, when 
old enough to pronounce the Creed, and recite 
the Catechism. In this vast and promiscuous 
mass, some few may be found who manifest 
vixal religion, appearing, among the multitude 
of the unsrodlv, like solitary travellers, walk- 
ing amidst huge catacombs of the dead. With 
the exception of these, the entire body of Ger- 
man Protestants may be distributed into two 



PART AND PILLAR OP POPERY. 77 

grand classes — formalists and rationalists. 
The first profess a profound veneration for 
Lutheranism, as the religion of their fathers 
and of their fatherland. They cling, with su- 
perstitious tenacity, to its symbols and formu- 
laries, and display a bigoted attachment to its 
ritual observances. This, with an occasional 
attendance at public worship, and a participa- 
tion in the Lord's supper once or twice in their 
lives, comprises the whole of their Christianity. 
The other class, though still retaining their 
connection with the church, do not pretend 
even to a speculative belief in the truth 
of the Gospel. They are infidels of every 
type and color, from the neologist who denies 
the divine authority of Revelation, to the pan- 
theist who, by deifying Nature, would annihi- 
late God. This, unhappily, is now the popular 
class in Germany. 

From these causes the most disastrous re- 
sults have followed. Real piety is well nigh 
extinct. Worldliness, scepticism, and contempt 
for all sacred things, everywhere predominate. 
The people flock to demoralizing and infidel 
lectures, while the temples of God are de- 
serted, and the Sabbath is turned into a carni- 



78 INFANT BAPTISM A 

val. The Lutheran Church, once so living and 
vigorous, is now a putrefying carcass, sending 
out poisonous exhalations over her own and 
other lands. This even her own writers admit. 
Tholuck, — who, though an eminently spiritual 
man, is yet a strong advocate for the ecclesi- 
astical system, of which he is so distinguished 
an ornament, and who, therefore, cannot be 
suspected of painting it in too dark a due, — 
has given us the following graphic description 
of its present state and character. ^'Ahugo 
corpse — stiff, cold, and livid. What in many 
of its parts appears like life, is but the life of 
the corruption itself, by which those parts are 
dissolving. Only here and there, among its 
dying members, is there a living one, that with 
difficulty averts death from itself, or seeks to 
infuse fresh life into the dead portions around 
it."^ 

^"Eineii grossen Leiclinam — staiT, kalt und bleich; 
was in Yielen seiner Glieder als Leben erscheint, es ist 
das Leben der Verwesung selbst, das seine Glieder auf- 
lost ; nur mitten unter sterbenden Gliedern nocb hie nnd 
da ein lebendiges, das mit Miibe den Tod von sich ab- 
wehrt, Oder Lebensfrische in die erstorbenen Theile urn 
sich her zu verbreiten sucht." 

Tholuck, Predigten, Band I. s. 25, Hamburg, 1843. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 79 

And what has brought the Protestant Chris- 
tianity of Germany into such a deplorable 
condition ? Infant baptism. This, by throw- 
ing down the barrier with which Christ has 
environed his church, admitting into her en- 
closure the unregenerate and profane, and even 
installing them in her seats of instruction, has 
produced all these direful evils. Will it be 
said, that in the present depraved state of 
humanity, communities might easily be per- 
vaded by an irreligious and infidel spirit, even 
if infant baptism had never existed ? We 
grant it. But then the destructive element 
would be without the church — not, as in this 
case, within it. However high the tide of 
ungodliness may rise, all is safe Mobile the 
church preserves the model ordained by its 
Divine Founder. Planted on the Eock, against 
which the gates of hell shall not prevail, it 
presents an embankment to the swelling 
waves, which breaks their force, and rolls 
them harmless back. In a pure church there 
dwells a recuperative power, that can renovate 
the most degenerate lands. Living and spi- 
ritual — in the world, yet distinct from the 
world — it acts as a correcting and restoring 



80 INFANT BAPTIS]V1 A 

agent, reproving iniquity, confounding unbe- 
lief, and holding forth the word of life to a 
reckless and profligate generation. But if its 
own light become darkness, how great is that 
darkness ! When the church itself engenders 
the disease, when its own bosom is the fountain 
which sends out the contagion — then the last 
hope disappears. Such a church cannot be 
reformed. It must be taken down, and give 
place to one built on a scriptural foundation, 
or the land which its presence blights, must 
sink, beyond recovery, into the gulf of cor- 
ruption. 

It may, perhaps, be affirmed, that the moral 
leprosy with which Lutheranism is infected, 
has arisen, not from infant baptism, but from 
certain doctrinal errors in her creed. To this 
Geneva gives the answer, by showing that even 
the most rigid orthodoxy cannot long remain 
pure, in connection with a practice which 
amalgamates the church and the world. Cal- 
vin, still more than Luther, founded his sys- 
tem deeply and broadly on the fundamental 
verities of the Gospel. But, like Luther, he 
left the initiatory ordinance unreformed, and 
thus mingled together the heterogeneous mate- 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 81 

rials of regenerate and unregenerate. By this 
single oversight, the city where he taught, and 
which, illuminated by his doctrine, was once a 
blazing centre of light — a spiritual Pharos, 
cheering and guiding the faithful in all lands 
— has been covered with the black night of 
Socinianism ; her radiance quenched; her 
voices of truth hushed ; and the very pulpit in 
which her adored reformer preached, polluted 
by lips that deny the divinity of the Son of 
God, and the renewing agency of His Spirit. 
And it is a remarkable fact, and one which 
bears strongly on the present discussion, that 
the only bright spot which now shines amid 
her darkness, was not kindled by any succes- 
sor of Calvin, but by a member of that body 
of Christians, whose prominent peculiarity is a 
rejection of the baptismal dogma which Calvin 
inculcated. It was through the instrumental- 
ity of Robert Haldane, a Baptist from Scot- 
land, that D'Aubignd and his coadjutors were 
brought to the knowledge of the truth, and 
incited to the holy labor of proclaiming an 
uncorrupted Gospel. Thus the solitary fire 
that burns in Geneva was lighted by a Baptist 



82 INFANT BAPTISM A 

hand ; and even this infant baptism will speed- 
ily extinguish, if it be not itself destroyed. 

But a still more striking instance of the 
pernicious effects of this custom, is furnished 
by the history of our own country. Never 
had infant baptism a fairer field, in which to 
prove whether there be any good in it, than 
among the Puritan churches of New England. 
The early founders of these churches had cast 
off the fetters of a tyrannical Hierarchy in the 
old world ; and although they were not en- 
tirely purified from the mischievous notion of 
the connection of religion with civil govern- 
ment, yet they brought with them to their new 
home views respecting the spiritual nature of 
Christian communities, and the simplicity of 
Christian worship, much more correct than 
those which were generally entertained in that 
age. They were men profoundly read in the 
Scriptures, of great faith and zeal, and of ex- 
emplary holiness. Since the days of the Apos- 
tles, the world has never seen a band of Chris- 
tians more pure-minded, more self-denied, more 
conversant with heavenly things. Their situ- 
ation, too, removed them far from the corrupt- 
ing contact of other less evangelical societies. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 83 

They were alone in the wilderness, with them- 
selves, their offspring, and their God. Surely 
then, if infant baptism could ever '' cease to 
do evil, and learn to do well," it would have 
been here. Let us, then, trace its workings in 
this secluded position. 

The original colonists of New England held 
that the visible church of Christ consisted 
of professed believers and their infant seed ; 
that the latter being born in the church, had 
a right to baptism ; and that, from their rela- 
tion to the church, they were subject to its 
w^atch and discipline. This relation, however, 
was regarded as a modified one, not entitling 
the baptized child to the full privileges of 
membership, and to a participation in the 
Lord's supper, until he should give evidence 
of genuine conversion. The anomalous state 
in which their offspring were thus placed — 
neither in the church nor out of it — greatly 
troubled these excellent men, as it ever has 
and ever will all who hold such unscriptural 
notions. In process of time, the children of 
the first settlers grew up, and became them- 
selves heads of families. Many of these still 
remained unregenerate. It was, therefore, a 



84 INFANT BAPTISM A 

very nice and perplexing matter to determine 
the true position, with respect to the church, 
of those who, having been baptized in infancy, 
did not manifest repentance and faith on their 
arrival at adult years. Equally difficult was 
it to settle the point whether the children of 
such ought to be baptized. These questions 
occasioned much solicitude, and called forth 
not a little discussion, throughout the colonies. 
The diversity of opinion, and consequent agi- 
tation, at length became so great, that, by 
the request of the magistrates of Connecticut, 
the controverted subjects were laid before an 
assembly of ministers convened at Boston, 
June 4, 1657. After deliberating fifteen days, 
they gave the following decision : '' That it is 
the duty of infants who confederate in their 
parents, when grown up to years of discretion, 
though not yet fit for the Lord's supper, to 
own the covenant which they made with their 
parents, by entering into it in their own per- 
sons. And it is the duty of the church to call 
upon them for the performance thereof; and 
if, being called upon, they shall refuse the 
performance of this great duty, or otherwise 
continue scandalous, they are liable to be cen* 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 85 

sured for the same by the church. And in 
case they understand the grounds of religion, 
and are not scandalous, and solemnly own the 
covenant in their own persons, wherein they 
give up both themselves and their children 
unto the Lord, and desire baptism for them, 
we see not sufficient cause to deny baptism 
unto their children."^ 

This decision was not received with entire 
unanimity. Many looked upon it as an inno- 
vation, calculated to lead to very evil con- 
sequences. The disputes and contentions re- 
specting it grew at last to be so violent, that a 
General Synod was deemed necessary, in or- 
der to secure peace and uniformity of practice 
in the churches. Such a body, called by the 
order of the General Court, met at Boston, in 
the year 1662. In due time, the fruits of 
their wisdom appeared in the shape of the fol- 
lowing Propositions. 

1. " They that, according to Scripture, are 
members of the visible church are the subjects 
of baptism. 

2. The members of the visible church, ac- 
cording to Scripture, are confederate believers, 

1 Mather's Magnalia, Book Y. p. 63. 

8 • 



86 I^■^A^■T baptism a 

in particular cburclies, and their infant seed, 
that is, chiklren in their minority, whose next 
parents, one or both, are in covenant. 

3. The infant seed of confederate visible 
believers are members of the same church with 
their parents, and Avhen grown up are person- 
ally under the watch, discipline and govern- 
ment of that church. 

4. These adult persons are not therefore to 
be admitted to full communion, merely because 
they are, and continue to be members, without 
such further qualifications as the word of God 
requireth thereto. 

5. Chui'ch members who were admitted in 
minority, understanding the doctrine of faith, 
and publicly professing their assent thereto, 
not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning 
the covenant before the church, wherein they 
give up themselves and their children to the 
Lord, and subject themselves to the govern- 
ment of Christ in the church, their children 
are to be baptized.'*^ 

These propositions having been submitted 
to the General Court, an order was passed by 
it, October 8, 1662, commending them to all 

^ Mathers Magnalia, Book V. p. 64. 



PART AND PILLAK OF POPERY. 87 

the churches in the jurisdiction/ Thus backed 
by the civil authority, the decision of the Sy- 
nod was soon generally acquiesced in by the 
New England churches. 

In this manner arose the celebrated '• Half- 
Way Covenant," according to which, persons 
making no profession of a change of heart, if 
they only exhibited a fair outward morality, 
were permitted and required, on the ground of 
their baptism in infancy, to appear before 
the church, recognize their connection with it, 
acknowledge their covenant obligations, and 
bring their children to baptism. Thus was 
the door opened to let the world into the 
church. Thus, within about forty years after 
the landing of the Pilgrims, and while the patri- 
archs of the May-Flower were scarcely dead, 
the original strictness of their discipline was 
so far changed as to admit an arrangement, 
which virtually effaces the separating line be- 
tween the holy and the unholy, between the 
conscious subjects of renewing grace, and the 
votaries of earthliness and sin. And this rapid 
'deterioration w^as caused by infant baptism. 
Had it not been for its existence and influ- 

1 Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. 64. 



88 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

ence, the offspring of believers, while unrege- 
nerate, would have been viewed as belonging, 
where they actually do belong, to " them that 
are without;" as sustaining no relation to the 
church different from that of other impenitent 
persons ; and as deriving from their religious 
parentage only the privilege — a precious one 
indeed — of being the special objects of Chris- 
tian solicitude, instruction, and prayer. But 
as such children were supposed, in consequence 
of their baptism, to hold some undefined and 
impalpable place in the church, the inconsis- 
tency of so regarding them, and yet practi- 
cally treating them as in the world, greatly 
disturbed these Puritan Fathers, as it has their 
descendants ever since. Hence they devised 
a plan by which baptized adults, who Avere still 
unconverted, might be brought away from the 
court of the Gentiles, and be made, at least, 
to confess themselves proselytes of the gate. 
Another reason which led them to this course, 
was the erroneous idea which they entertained 
— an idea growing out of infant baptism — 
that it was the particular appointment of God 
to perpetuate his kingdom on earth by heredi- 
tary descent. When, therefore, they saw their 



PART AND PILLAE OF POPEEY. 89 

children arriving at maturity, and becoming 
themselves parents, without possessing that 
spiritual character which would fit them to 
take their place at the Lord's table, they be- 
came greatly alarmed for the continuance of 
religion in future times. ^ To guard against this 
danger, they resolved that their sons and daugh- 
ters, if not prepared to make a full profession, 
should, at any rate, make half of one, and so 
far own the covenant as to bring their infants 
within it ; in this manner serving as a sort of 
intermediate conductors to convey the faith 
of the grand parents to the grand children, 
and thus securing the transmission of grace to 
posterity. 

The corrupt principle contained in this 
measure, and the evils which resulted from it, 
cannot be described more forcibly than they 
have been by the eloquent Dr. Wisner, who, as 
a Pedobaptist, cannot be supposed to have over- 
drawn the picture. • ^^ Persons were permitted 
to come and make, in the most solemn circum- 
stances, the most solemn of all professions, 
when they did not regard themselves, and were 
not regarded by others, as having at all in 

^ Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. G3. 

8* 



90 INFANT BAPTISM A 

heart given themselves away to God, and 
trusted in Christ, and yielded themselves up 
to be the temples of the Holy Ghost. And as 
to the promises which were annexed, of edu- 
cating children in the fear of the Lord, and 
submitting to the discipline of the church, on 
the one hand, and of watchful care on the 
other, they too soon came to be alike disre- 
garded, both by those who exacted and by 
those who made them. Parents did not, and 
soon were not expected, to fulfill their engage- 
ments, in form so solemn and significant ; and 
churches did not, and soon were not expected 
to fulfill theirs. Thus the most solemn and 
impressive acts of religion came to be regarded 
as unmeaning ceremonies ; the form only to 
be thought important, while the substance was 
overlooked, and rapidly passing away."^ 

It was not to be expected that the evil 
would stop here. The progress of degeneracy 
is ever more decided and rapid, the longer it 
continues. It is like the letting out of im- 
prisoned waters, which rush along with a force 
and volume constantly increasing. Accordingly, 
the same writer thus graphically records the 

1 Wisner's History of tlie Old South Chm^ch. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 91 

consequences to which it soon led. "And now 
another and still more fatal step was taken *in 
this downward course. Why should such a 
difference be made between the two Christian 
sacraments, which reason infers from the na- 
ture of the case, and the Scriptures clearly 
determine, require precisely the same qualifi- 
cations ? If persons were qualified to make, 
in order to come to one ordinance, the very 
same profession, both in meaning and in terms, 
required to come to the other, why should they 
be excluded from that other ? The practical 
result, every one sees, would be, that if the 
innovation already made were not abandoned, 
another would speedily be introduced. And 
such was the fact. Correct moral deportment, 
with a profession of correct devotional opinions, 
and a desire for regeneration, came to be re- 
garded as the only qualification for admission 
to the communion. This innovation, though 
not as yet publicly advocated by any, there 
is conclusive proof had become quite extensive 
in practice previously to 1679. The churches 
soon came to consist very considerably, in 
many places, of unregenerate persons — of 
those who regarded themselves, and were re- 



92 . IXPAXT BAPTISM A 

gardecl by others, as unregenerate. Of all 
these things the consequence was, that within 
thirty years after the commencement of the 
eighteenth century, a large portion of the 
clergy, through the country, were either only 
speculatively correct, or to some extent actually 
erroneous in their religious opinions, maintain- 
ing regularly the forms of religion, but in 
some instances having well nigh lost, and in 
others, it is to be feared, having never felt, its 
power. "^ 

To such a state had the Puritan churches of 
New England been brought by infant baptism, 
within a single century. Silently but surely 
it had done its work, sapping successively the 
safeguards of truth and purity, until by the 
abandonment of the principle, that none but 
" living stones " should be incorporated into 
the house of God, the last defence gave way, 
and a torrent of corruption flowed in. The 
world emptied itself into the church. There 
was, in fact, no longer any world. It was all 
church. Everywhere men avowedly uncon- 
verted belonged to her communion, presided 
over her interests, served at her altars. With 

1 Wisner's History, etc. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 93 

a membersliip and ministry thus alike carnal, 
it was not to be supposed that she would re- 
tain, for any length of time, even a theoretical 
belief in the grand teachings of revelation. 
These, however, were not at once repudiated. 
The forms of faith, which have become fixed 
in a community, do not suddenly pass away. 
Truth leaves the heart and the lips long before 
it leaves the creed. For a considerable period, 
therefore, a dead, leaden orthodoxy hung over 
New England, hiding, like a shroud, the rot- 
tenness beneath. But this could not continue. 
An incipient change began to be perceived. 
The distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel 
were not, indeed, denounced and opposed. 
They were pass-ed over. While still keeping 
their place in Confessions and Articles, they 
were quietly dismissed from the Pulpit, to 
make room for moral essays, and panegyrics 
on the beauty of natural virtue. The down- 
ward process, having gone thus far, must go 
farther. Men are never satisfied with what is 
merely negative. They demand the positive ; 
and when once they have discarded positive 
truth, their next step is to embrace positive 
error. Hence, we find that as early as the 



94 INFANT BAPTISM A 

middle of the last century, opinions involving 
a denial of the proper divinity of Christ, the 
depravity of human nature, the need of atone- 
ment, and the work of the Spirit in regenera- 
tion, were extensively adopted in Massachu- 
setts. Advocated at first by some prominent 
ministers of Boston, they spread for fifty years 
through the country, pervading the graceless 
clergy and the still more graceless laity ; until, 
the season of incubation having expired, the 
monstrous egg broke at last, and the great 
Unitarian Apostacy stood revealed in all its 
hideousness. 

Now, we aflSrm that this most disastrous 
consummation was the direct result of infant 
baptism. It was the product of a series of 
agencies of which infant baptism was the be- 
ginning and author. Its proximate cause is 
doubtless to be found in the practices growing 
out of the half way Covenant. But what ori- 
ginated the half way Covenant ? Would this 
strange device have ever seen the light, had it 
not been for the illicit union of the church 
with infant baptism ? Do not all the writers 
of that period expressly declare, that its sole 
purpose was to induce irreligious parents, who 



PAKT AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 95 

had been baptized in infancy, to make a 
formal recognition of the covenant, so that 
their children might be brought to the font, 
and thus infant baptism be perpetuated ? 
Without infant baptism, such a measure would 
never have been dreamed of, nor could the 
slightest pretence have been set up for its 
adoption. Infant baptism, then, we say again, 
is the original and real parent of New Eng- 
land Unitarianism. 

And as in Geneva, so here, the first check 
given to the rampant heresy came from those 
who had never acknowledged Pedobaptism. 
When the banner of an insulted Christ lay 
soiled and trampled in the dust, the venerated 
Stillman and Baldwin caught it up, and wav- 
ing it abroad in the breeze, sent the war-cry 
of Immanuel echoing over all the hills and 
vallies of New England ; until the few, " faith- 
ful found among the faithless," had time to 
rally and make head against the overwhelming 
defection. A Pedobaptist historian very can- 
didly informs us, that " at the beginning of 
the present century, all the Congregational 
churches in Boston, with a single exception^ 
had renounced the faith of the Puritans. The 



96 INFANT BAPTISM A 

Old South still stood upon the platform of the 
fathers, though her pastor was a semi-Arian. 
But when the enemy came in like a flood, the 
Lord lifted up a standard against him. In the 
year 1803, the Baptist churches in the city 
were visited with a precious revival, in which 
the Old South shared to some extent."^ A few 
of the members of this Church, occasionally 
worshipping with the Baptists, became revived, 
and established a prayer meeting among them- 
selves ; from which a renovating movement 
commenced, that has been the origin of all the 
Orthodox Congregational Churches with which 
the City of the Pilgrims is now blessed. Thus 
when infant baptism had put out the fire on all 
its own altars, with the exception of one solitary 
shrine, and had caused it even there to burn 
dim and low ; the flame was kindled again from 
altars which this unscriptural rite had never 
been sufi'ered to profane. And while, amid the 
Egyptian darkness that settled down over the 
Pedobaptists in Boston, the Baptists, in their 
Goshen at the North End,^ thus walked in 

1 Moore's Boston Bevivals, p. 28. 

2 The part of the citj in which the Baptist churches 
were located. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 97 

unclouded light, and showed themselves valiant 
for the truth ; so, throughout the land, feeble 
and scattered as they were, they stood firm by 
the cause of their Master. Though thousands 
around were casting off the authority of Jesus, 
not a man of them wavered in his allegiance. 
From all their places of worship the ensign of 
the cross streamed out undepressed and un- 
tarnished ; and from all their pulpits the God- 
head of Christ, and the sovereign efficacy of 
His blood, were distinctly and earnestly pro- 
claimed. To the memory of these brave- 
hearted men justice may never be done in this 
world. But we doubt not, that in the great 
day of decision, when all events and instru- 
mentalities shall be placed in their true light, 
it will appear that to the Baptists of Massa- 
chusetts belongs the honor of having been the 
first to arrest the overflowing scourge ; that 
they were the Abdiels who remained faithful 
in the midst of revolted multitudes ; that it 
was they, who, when all seemed lost, threw 
themselves, single-handed, into the van of the 
battle, and held the field against fearful odds, 
until, behind their sheltering front, the broken 
ranks of Orthodoxy were formed anew. Peace 
9 



98 INFANT BAPTISM A 

to the ashes of these Christian heroes ! May 
their names and their deeds be precious to 
New England, as they are already blessed in 
heaven ! 

The great facts, which have been thus 
briefly reviewed, are full of instruction. They 
teach us, with the truth and certainty of his- 
tory, that infant baptism, whenever operating 
without restraint, will inevitably corrupt the 
communities that uphold it. Either, by intro- 
ducing the dogma of baptismal regeneration, 
and attributing saving virtue to outward forms, 
it will develop itself into essential Romanism ; 
or, by admitting the unregenerate into the 
church, and joining together what God has 
put asunder, it will prepare the way for a 
dead and soulless Faith, soon to be quickened 
into a living Infidelity. Whichever direction 
it takes, and in whatever shape its influence is 
displayed, it is " evil, only evil, and that con- 
tinually." We cannot but regard it as the 
most pernicious heresy which has ever sullied 
the primitive simplicity of the Gospel. We are 
constrained to believe, that, directly or indi- 
rectly, it has done more than all other cor- 
ruptions combined, to pollute Christianity, to 



PAET AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 99 

enfeeble her power, and to keep back tbe hour 
of her final triumph. It is, in fact, the origin 
of most of these corruptions, — the source from 
which they have sprung, and by which they 
are constantly fed. In a word, we look upon 
it as the most dangerous element that now 
exists in the Church. And it is all the more 
dangerous from the slow and insidious manner 
in which it accomplishes its results. Were it 
to stand out in open day, with its real nature 
and tendencies fully revealed, the whole host 
of God's people would rise up to banish 
it from the earth. But it acts silently and 
covertly, reaching its ends by steps so circuit- 
ous, and by a progress so imperceptible, that 
the consequences are not seen till the catas- 
trophe comes ; and even then they are refer- 
red, not to the primal cause, but to some one 
of the intermediate agencies which it has set 
in motion. 

To the views here expressed it may be ob- 
jected, that there are several denominations of 
Christians in this country, who practice infant 
baptism, and yet maintain evangelical senti- 
ments, and exhibit an evangelical spirit. This 
is cheerfully admitted. Nevertheless, it does 



100 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

not shake our confidence in the soundness of 
the position we have taken. In these deno- 
minations, infant baptism is not allowed its 
free and natural development. It is restricted 
and hemmed in by a counteracting power. 
And this power goes out from the Baptist 
Churches. While claiming no superiority over 
their evangelical sisters, in general correct- 
ness of doctrine, or purity of Christian char- 
acter ; they do claim — and Scripture sustains 
the claim — that, on the particular subject of 
baptism, they alone hold the truth ; and what 
they firmly believe, they fearlessly declare. 
By their constantly increasing numbers ; by 
their almost universal diffusion ; by the scrip- 
tural and even self-evident nature of their 
principles, — a wide public opinion has been 
created unfavorable to infant baptism. This 
prevailing sentiment acts not on Baptists 
alone ; nor on those only who are immediately 
under their influence. It affects all classes. 
It penetrates even the guarded inclosure of 
Pedobaptist churches, producing an uncon- 
fessed, but ever active distrust of an institu- 
tion, to w^hich the Bible lends no sanction. 
This is shown by the sad complainings w^hich 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 101 

are utterred in certain quarters, respecting 
the diminution in the number of baptized 
children, and the diflSculty of persuading pa- 
rents to comply with a custom, for which they 
can find neither precept nor example in the 
Word of God. In some sections, indeed, the 
practice seems rapidly falling in desuetude. 
And were ministers and theological teachers 
to cease striving to uphold, by their bare au- 
thority, a rite which they never have proved, 
and never can prove, to be of divine appoint- 
ment, the masses w^ould soon lay it aside alto- 
gether. 

Thus circumscribed and impeded, infant 
baptism does not display its full character and 
tendency. Born in the twilight of supersti- 
tion, it puts forth all its energies for evil only 
when surrounded by its native element. Un- 
der the noon-day of truth which Baptists are 
now pouring upon it, its eyes are dazzled ; it 
becomes torpid ; its huge limbs shrivel up ; it 
assumes the shrunken form of a mere act of 
"symbolic dedication;'' even some of its 
friends begin to treat it as a small affair, and 
almost to ignore it. 

Yet* even in this shorn and crippled state, it 
9* 



102 IXFAXT BAPTIS3I A> 

is neither dead nor harmless. It must, under 
any circumstances, operate as a fatal injury, 
or a gross injustice, to those on "whom it is ad- 
ministered. If, as they grow up, it lead them, 
as it naturally may, to suppose themselves in 
a peculiar relation to God, bearing the seal of 
His covenant, and set apart as His special 
property ; it Trill inevitably render them se- 
cure in their impenitence, under the persuasion 
that by virtue of their baptism they shall cer- 
tainly obtain grace at last ; and thus it will 
prove the direct means of their everlasting 
destruction. Or if, in spite of this delusive 
impression, the divine Spirit should reach their 
hearts, convince them of their lost condition, 
and bring them to Christ ; then it will act as 
an unrighteous bond to withhold them from 
duty. A ceremony, in which they bore no 
conscious share ; vows, made by others in their 
name, without their consent or knowledge — 
will be urged as arguments to prevent them 
from obeying the plain command of the Sa- 
viour, first to believe, and then to be baptized. 
In both these cases, inf^mt baptism is a fla- 
grant wrong. In the one, it is a snare to the 
soul ; in the other, a trap to the conscience. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 103 

But this is not the only evil which it is pro- 
ducing, at the present day, among the Pedo- 
baptist communities of our own land. In 
some directions, its old Popish Teaven is busily 
working. Already, through its operation, a 
large portion of the Episcopal denomination 
has become essentially Komanized, both in 
spirit and in practice. And in certain sections 
of the Presbyterian body, views are advanced 
with respect to its efficacy, and the moral po- 
sition of its subjects, which involve the very 
germ of Popery. No — ^infant baptism has not 
lost its venom under the bright sun of the 
nineteenth century, and in the free air of re- 
publican America. And if it does not, at last, 
render this country Papal or infidel, it will be 
owing, under God, to the resistance it meets 
with from the Baptist churches. Let their 
light be withdrawn, and a few generations 
would see our now broad and happy land 
covered with spiritual darkness, rotting be- 
neath the stagnant waters of Formalism, or 
swept by the Avild waves of a God-denying 
Liberalism. 

One more great truth has been evolved by 
our inquiries. It is, that when Christian bodies, 



104 INFANT BAPTISM A 

retaining infant baptism, become corrupt, they 
have no inherent power to throw off the con- 
taminating influence, and spring forth into 
new life. If d church, built on the apostoli- 
cal basis of admitting to membership only the 
avowedly regenerate, should in procees of time 
be debased by the intrusion of secular ingre- 
dients, it has the element of restoration within 
itself. The remedy lies in a recurrence to its 
own first principles ; in the enforcement of 
that fundamental law of its constitution, which 
requires, that God's spiritual house should be 
composed of spiritual materials alone. But it 
is widely different with a Pedobaptist church. 
It can derive no help from a resort to its first 
principles. These first principles have done 
all the mischief. The regarding it as an ele- 
mentary rule, that the church of Christ con- 
sists of believers and their unconverted seed, 
thus mingling together the 'lively stones" of 
the sanctuary, and " the wood, hay, and stub- 
ble" of the world — has been the very well- 
spring of the corruption which overspreads it. 
How, then, can it put away this corruption, 
while its source remains ? Such a result is 
clearly impossible. It may manifest occasional 



PART AXD PILLAH OF POPERY. 105 

amendment. There may be in its history in- 
tervals of revival and of comparative purity. 
But they will be partial and evanescent. The 
same prolific fountain will continue to send out 
its streams to deluge and pollute it anew. For 
such a church there is no alternative but to re- 
nounce its first principles, and adopt the plat- 
form of the Bible, or sink, at length, in irre- 
claimable degeneracy. The history of the world 
does not furnish an instance of a Pedobap- 
tist church, remaining such, that has radically 
and permanently reformed itself. The Church 
of England has not done it, and never can do 
it. She must cease her unholy alliance with 
the State ; she must cease to admit to her com- 
munion the worldly and the profane ; in other 
words, she must cease to be Pedobaptist — 
cease to be herself — and be transmuted into a 
new, spiritual church, modeled according to 
the pattern of the Gospel — before the Spirit 
of Holiness will revisit her tabernacles. The 
Church of Germany has not done it, and never 
can do it. All the learning, and piety, and 
zeal of the noble band of evangelical men, 
that are now rising up in her midst, will never 
dispel the gangrene from her vitals, unless the 



106 INFANT BAPTISM A 

cause be removed, by the removal of infant 
baptism, and its attendant evils. There may 
be, in particular spots, signs of spasmodic 
life ; and here and there individuals may be 
found who appear truly awake to the concerns 
of eternity. But over the great body of her 
communion. Death will still reign in all the 
intensity of its power. It is not from a 
church so sunk in the mire of secularity, that 
the redemption of Germany is to come. The 
day of that redemption is indeed dawning; 
but its beams emanate not from the lecture- 
rooms of the universities, nor from the pulpits 
of endowed cathedrals. It is from the little 
companies of baptized believers, gathered by 
Oncken, and Kobner, and Lehmann, that there 
goes forth over the land of Luther and Me- 
lancthon, the mornino: Ho!;ht of a second Refer- 
mation ; a Reformation which shall be com- 
plete, as the first was partial, and which shall 
overthrow the citadel of darkness, as that did 
its outworks. So it has been, and so it will 
be ever. The records of every century since 
infant baptism arose, corroborate the state- 
ment, that communities, plunged by it into 
moral decay, never recover by any impulse 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 107 

from ^vithin. The energy, which shall fully 
reanimate them, must come from without ; and 
even then the result can be perfectly secured, 
only by taking their whole frame-work in 
pieces, and reconstructing it on a scriptural 
basis. 

For evangelical Pedobaptists, of whatever 
name, we cherish the most fraternal feelings. 
We salute them as brethren in Christ. We 
know them to be devoted, heart and soul, to 
the same holy Cause, in which we humbly toil. 
We believe that they desire, with a sincerity 
and earnestness unsurpassed by our ow^n, the 
abolition of every form of superstition and 
unbelief, and the spread of a pure Gospel 
throughout the earth. But, at the same time, 
we are solemnly convinced, that so long as 
they cling to infant baptism, they can never 
see these ends entirely accomplished. How 
can they hope to demolish Romanism, while 
they strive to perpetuate, in their own organi- 
zations, the very key-stone of its whole sys- 
tem ; the chief instrument which brought it 
into being, and which will inevitably build it 
up again, the same in substance, if not in 
name ? Or how can they look for ultimate 



108 INFAI^T BAPTISM A 

triumph in the conflict with infidelity, if they 
cherish among themselves a traitor, that, fast 
as they can drive one army from the field, 
will bring a fresh one into it ? This is but the 
labor of Sisyphus repeated. The stone of 
victory, rolled almost to the mountain-top, 
will rebound and fall back into the abj^ss. 
Such efi*orts, to be successful, must begin at 
the foundation. The axe must be laid at the 
root. Infant Baptism — that old Upas tree, 
which, with its death-distilling branches, Un- 
godly Church-Membership, State-Keligions, 
Prelacy, Popery, and Scepticism, has for four- 
teen centuries shaded and blasted the world — 
must come down, before the pure light of 
Heaven, and the sweet breath of Life, can cir- 
culate freely over the expanse of our dark- 
ened and diseased humanity. 

How momentous is the part assigned to 
those who hold the ordinances of Christ as He 
delivered them ! We cannot doubt that it is 
the purpose of God to introduce, through 
their instrumentality, that general return to 
primitive order, which is to herald the crown- 
ing conquests of the Gospel. From the time 
of thq first departure from apostoliciil purity, 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 109 

even down through all the darkest eras of the 
subsequent Apostacy, there has always been 
a succession of men, who, abjuring all commu- 
nion with Rome, have, under different names^ 
and in different countries, kept the word 
and the testimony of Jesus. And the rapid 
growth, in our own day, of the true descend- 
ants of these ancient witnesses, their advanced 
position, their disciplined array, their increas- 
ing influence and resources, furnish significant 
indications, that their great work is soon to be 
achieved. What a solemn mission is theirs ! 
How do the coming destinies of the church 
and of the world hang upon it ! Their prin- 
ciples must prevail, or tradition, imposture, 
and infidelity will still hold the field. Their 
banner must wave from every tower and bat- 
tlement of Zion, or final victory can never be 
hers. May "the Captain of Salvation" give 
them grace to fulfill the trust committed to 
their hands. 



10 



/ r^ 



] TO INFANT BAPTISM A 



I 



CHAPTER IV. 

CERTAIN EXTINCTION OF INFANT BAPTISM. 

It is true, that from the fifth century until 
now, this pernicious error has held sway over 
the greater part of those who have borne the 
Christian name ; bringing with it all the cor- 
ruptions of doctrine and of discipline which 
inevitably follow in its train. It is also true, 
that, though its power has been checked, and 
its hold on the public mind weakened, it is 
still widely prevalent ; substituting, through- 
out whole nations, a mere nominal Christianity 
for the pure and life-living Gospel; propping 
up time-worn abuses ; and retarding the moral 
emancipation of the world. Nevertheless, I 
firmly believe that the time is hastening on, 
when, strongly intrenched as it now is in the 
superstitious veneration of the masses, and 
upheld, from interested motives, by lordly 
priests and bloated hierarchies, it shall be ut- 



PART AND PILLAU OE POPERY. Ill 

terly and forever extirpated. The Scriptures 
teem with the delightful announcement, that a 
day shall yet dawn on the earth, when Chris- 
tianity shall not only universally prevail, but 
shall be wholly freed from the numerous per- 
versions by which its energies have been im- 
paired, and its beauty disfigured. In that 
predicted period, "the Man of Sin" shall be 
destroyed, and every trace and relic of his 
influence be swept away. The doctrines of 
the Gospel will shine out in their primal lustre, 
and its ordinances again be restored to apos- 
tolical purity and simplicity. Christ " shall 
be King over all the earth, and there shall be 
one Lord, and His name one."^ In other 
words, *^'one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," 
shall be acknowledged and received by all 
Christians : and there shall be a universal 
agreement with respect both to the inward 
essence and the outward institutions of the 
Gospel. In this glorious reign of truth and 
holiness — the "latter day," which inspiration 
promises, and for which every pious heart 
must fervently long — infant baptism will no 

1 Zech. xiv. 9. 



r C 



112 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

more be practiced, but will vanish and be for- 
gotten, as the shadows of the morning twi- 
light melt before the risen sun.. This I most 
confidently believe. As firmly as I believe 
that the Gospel shall yet subdue the world, so 
firmly do I believe that, in the consummation 
of its triumphs, infant baptism, with every 
other antichristian custom, will be driven out 
of the church, and be cast into the same bot- 
tomless pit w^ith the Beast and the false pro- 
phet. The reasons on which my belief is 
founded, are partially implied in the state- 
ments above made. It may be desirable how- 
ever, that I should adduce them more particu- 
larly, and at greater length. 

I believe this, because, in the time referred 
to, churches will be formed on the same model 
with those in the days of the Apostles. That 
this will be the case, is clearly manifest from 
the teachings of prophecy. " And I will turn 
my hand upon thee, and purely purge away 
thy dross, and take away all thy tin ; and I 
will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy 
counsellors as at the beginning; afterward 
thou shalt be called, The City of Righteous- 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERT. 113 

ness."^ " Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will 
bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, 
and have mercy on his dwelling places ; and 
the city shall be builded upon her own heap, 
and the palace shall remain after the manner 
thereof. Their children also shall be as afore- 
time, and their congregation shall be estab- 
lished before me."^ ''And the temple of God 
was opened in heaven, and there was seen in 
His temple the ark of His testament. "^ Now 
the apostolical churches contained only bap- 
tized believers, or such persons, and such 
alone, as had by baptism made a public pro- 
fession of their faith. The church at Jerusa- 
lem — the first Christian Church that was in- 
stituted — consisted of the Apostles and others 
who had been converted and baptized during 
the ministry of our Lord ; and then of those 
who, on the day of Pentecost and subsequently 
received the truth, and were added by baptism, 
to the company of the disciples.* The next 
Christian Church was at Samaria ; and this 
was composed of men and women, who were 
baptized on believing the Gospel preached by 

1 Isa i. 25, 26 2 jer. xxx. 18, 20. s j^ey. xi. 19. 

^ Acts ii. 41 : iv. 4. 

10* 



114 IXFAXT BAPTISM A 

Philip.^ The Churcli at Corinth consisted of 
those who, having heard the 'word from the 
lips of Paul, believed and Tvere baptized.^ Of 
similar converts were the Churches at Eome, 
Philippi, and Colosse composed. In all the 
New Testament, not a single instance of in- 
fant baptism nor of infant membership is re- 
corded, or even intimated. Nor is there the 
slightest hint that any were ever received into 
churches, who had not been baptized on a 
personal profession of their faith. If there- 
fore, such was the apostolical constitution of 
the Church ; and if, in the latter day, this 
constitution is to be restored ; it follows that 
infant baptism will then be no more practiced. 
I believe this, because the ordinances of the 
Grospel will then be administered as they were 
originally appointed, free from all the present 
intermixtures of superstition and corruption. 
Such I consider to be the meaning of that 
vision of the Apocalypse — the openirig of the 
temple of Crod in Seaven"^ — seen by St. John 
immediately after the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet. I interpet this as a symbolical an- 

^ Acts viii. 12. 21cts xviii. 8. 

3 Kev. xi. 19 : xv. 5. 



I 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 115 

nouncement of the restoration of the worship, 
doctrines, discipline, and ordinances of the Gos- 
pel to their free use, and to their primitive 
purity. In the coming era of scriptural light 
and knowledge, "the tabernacle of the testi- 
mony" — the pure truth of God— so long shut 
up by ecclesiastical tyranny, or hidden behind 
the veil of perversions and false glosses, will 
be thrown wide open, revealing^ its treasures 
to every eye, and filling every mind with its 
heavenly radiance. In this broad and bright 
illumination, every form of error will shrink 
away, and be annihilated. The teachings of 
the Gospel will be rightly understood, and 
cordially embraced. The Lord's supper will be 
administered, clear of all the corruptions and 
ceremonies, introduced into it by Papists, 
and retained by Protestants. In like manner, 
the ordinance of baptism will be purified and 
brought back to the scriptural modeL In the 
first ages of Christianity, it was administered 
to believers alone, and by immersion only. 
So will it be in the future age of renovation. 
Of course, then, infant sprinkling will be prac- 
ticed no more. 

I believe this, because Christ will then be 



116 INFANT BAPTISM A 

King over all the earth in a spiritual sense ; 
the one Lord whose commands will be obeyed 
with great precision and exactness, as they are 
made known in His Word. Among the com- 
mands which He has given, baptism is included ; 
and as he will be acknowledged the one Lord 
and Head of the Church, — and not the Pope, 
whose power will then be ended — there will 
be one Baptism, which will be administered to 
one class of subjects only, and by immersion 
only — the one mode which He has ordained in 
His statutes, and confirmed by his example. 
Infant sprinkling, therefore, will be practiced 
no more. 

I believe this, because, in the advancing 
period of Zion's glory, the name of Christ, 
that is. His religion, will be one and the same 
in every part of the world. In spirit, in doc- 
trine, in form, it will be precisely what it was 
when it came, all stainless and living, from its 
Divine Founder. Now it appears various, dis- 
cordant, even contradictory, owing to the dif- 
ferent manner in which it is professed and 
exhibited. But in the latter day, it will be 
uniform and harmonious in all its branches, as 
embraced, felt and manifested by all Christians. 



L 



I 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 117 

And as baptism is a part of Christ's religion, 
this also will be observed in a uniform manner 
by all who bear Christ's name. For since 
the name of Christ, or the Christian religion 
in all its parts, will be the same in all who pro- 
fess it ; I, therefore, am firmly persuaded, that 
baptism will be practiced alike by all, accord- 
ing to its primitive institution; and, conse- 
quently, that infant sprinkling will be forever 
abolished. 

I believe this, because, in the latter day, 
" the watchmen of Zion will see eye to eye."^ 
As the appointed teachers of Christianity will 
be of one mind, with respect both to its doc- 
trines and its duties, and will alike preach the 
one, and practice the other ; so the people, un- 
der their ministrations, will be all of the same 
belief; receiving the truths of the Gospel in 
the love of them, and submitting to its pre- 
cepts and institutions, without any difierence 
among themselves, and without any variation 
from the word of God. There will then no 
longer be any strife about baptism. All will 
agree, that its proper subjects are believers, 
and its right mode immersion. Thus infant 

ilsa. lii. 8. 



118 INFANT BAPTISM A 

sprinkling will no more be contended for ; and 
Christians will in all things serve the Lord with 
one consent,^ 

Another reason why I firmly believe that 
infant baptism will hereafter entirely cease, is, 
because Antichrist will be utterly consumed 
by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, and with the 
brightness of his coming.^ In other words, 
Komanism, with all kindred systems of false- 
hood and impiety, will be annihilated by the 
pure and powerful preaching of the Gospel, 
when Christ shall come to take to Himself 
His power, and reign spiritually in the 
churches, in a manner more glorious than He 
has ever yet done. Then all antichristian 
doctrines and practices will be entirely abol- 
ished, even the whole body of antichristian 
worship. Not a limb of Antichrist shall re- 
main, but all be consumed. Kow as I fully 
believe, and think it has been clearly shown, 
that infant baptism is a part and pillar of 
Popery, a limb of Antichrist, a branch of su- 
perstition and will-worship, introduced by the 
Man of Sin, — when he shall be destroyed, this 
shall be destroyed with him. 

iZep. iii. 9. 22 Thess. ii. 8. 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 119 

Nor am I shaken in this belief by the fact, 
that, in various ages, wise and good men have 
embraced and practiced infant baptism. It is 
a part of "the wood, hay, and stubble,'' laid 
by them upon the foundation. It is one of 
those works of theirs — the product of human 
device and invention — which the bright day 
of the Gospel shall declare to be a falsehood ; 
and which the fire of the word will try, burn 
up, and consume, though they themselves 
shall be saved. And, therefore, being utterly 
consumed, it shall no more appear in the 
world. 

When the angel, foretold in the Apocalypse, 
shall descend from heaven with great power, 
to proclaim the fall of spiritual Babylon, the 
w^hole earth shall be lightened with his glory.^ 
Before the blazing splendor of truth, that will 
surround his path, all darkness shall be re- 
moved, and all works of darkness be made 
manifest and cast off — among which infant 
baptism is one. Then shall the earth be full 
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea.^ That is, the knowledge of the 
word, ways, worship, truths, and ordinances 

JRev. XTiii. 1, 2. 2isa. xi. 9. 



120 INFANT baptis:m a 

of God, shall universally prevail ; and all ig- 
norance, misconception, or abuse of them be 
banished forever. The ordinance of baptism 
will then be disentangled from the mass of tra- 
ditions which have so long encumbered it, and 
appear once more in its native lustre. It will 
be observed in strict accordance with its origi- 
nal mode and design, and every corruption 
of it be scrupulously rejected. Hence, as 
infant baptism is such a corruption, it will, 
in that day, be abhorred and cast away. 

Since we are taught in Scripture, that the 
ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper 
are to continue until the coming of Christ at 
the end of the world ;^ and since these^ or- 
dinances have been greatly and very generally 
corrupted ; it is not reasonable to suppose that 
their Divine Author will allow them always to 
remain in this deformed and vitiated state ; 
but that in the spiritual reign of Christ — the 
blissful period that is to usher in His final Ad- 
vent, — every perversion which has been made 
of their intent, and every addition or curtail- 
ment which has marred their inspired model, 
will be scattered, like chaff, before the might 

1 Matt. xxYiii. 19, 20; 1 Cor. xi. 26. 



I 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 121 

of the triumphant Grospel. And as in relation 
to baptism, there must be, on the one side or 
-the other, a mistake with respect both to its 
subjects and its mode ; and as I am thoroughly 
persuaded that this mistake exists on the side 
of the Pedobaptists ; so I as firmly believe, 
for the reason given, that it will be removed, 
and infant sprinkling be no more used. 

The time when this happy consummation will 
take place, is that predicted in the message to 
the church at Philadelphia,^ whose state I re- 
gard as emblematical of the spiritual reign of 
Christ in the latter day. In this conclusion I 
am confirmed by the character given of that 
church and of its members. It is described 
as having kept the word of Christ ; and this, 
I conceive, prefigures the conduct of Chris- 
tians in the millenial age ; when not only will 
the doctrines of the Gospel be purely preached 
and openly professed, but its ordinances also, 
baptism and the Lord's supper, which, — espe- 
cially baptism, — have been sadly corrupted in 
almost all former periods except the apostolic, 
will be restored to their pristine purity and 
glory. Hence it is promised to this church, 

1 Rev. iii. 7-12. 



122 INFANT BAPTISM A 

and through it to the churches of that future era 
^vhich it represents, that because it had truly 
and faithfully kept the word of Christ's pa- 
tience, it should be delivered from the hour of 
temptation which should come upon all the 
earth. It is also exhorted to hold fast what it 
had, and to maintain both doctrines and ordi- 
nances as they were delivered by Christ and 
his Apostles, and as it now held them in their 
primitive simplicity and incorruptness.* 

1 This interpretation of the learned anthor will not 
bear the test of sober criticism. The Apostle John was 
instructed bj our Lord to address a message to the 
church in Philadelphia — a church existing in his own 
time, and in the region which had been the principal scene 
of his own labors. In this message, allusion is made to 
the state and character of the church, and to recent 
events in its history. Its steadfastness and fidelity are 
commended ; and a promise is given to it of triumph over 
the Judaical party, by whose factious conduct its peace, 
in common with that of all the early churches, had been 
greatly disturbed. Then follows the animating assurance 
of preservation in the approaching hour of temptation, 
which should come upon all the world ; by which is un- 
doubtedly meant one of those severe and general perse- 
cutions which took place under the Roman emperors. 
Now that there is much in this message instructive and 
profitable to Christians in all ages, as well as to those to 
■whom it was primarily directed, none will deny. But to 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 123 

These are the principal reasons why I be- 
lieve, with a strong and unwavering faith, that 
the time is coming, and I trust is not far off, 
when infant baptism, with its numerous pro- 
geny of baleful influences and results, will be 
banished from the earth, no more to pollute 
the fair face of Christianity, and no more to 
deceive the souls of men. 

In our own times, a great and just alarm is 
felt at the rapid increase of Popery, and the 
spread of principles kindred with it, and tend- 
ing to its propagation. The Beast seems reco- 
vering from his deadly wound,^ and with invi- 
gorated energies, is preparing for a last effort 

convert it into a prophecy, and make it, in fact, a sym- 
bol of one of the grand epochs in the unfolding destinies 
of the Gospel, — when not the slightest hint of such an 
application is contained in the message itself, — is a 
mode of expounding Scripture altogether arbitrary and 
fanciful. It is unquestionably true, that the universal 
prevalence of Christianity is the subject of numerous 
scriptural predictions ; and that, in the period of their 
fulfilment, the doctrines and institutions of the Gospel 
"will be purely held and kept. But it is not true that the 
state of the Philadelphian Church was designed by 
the Holy Spirit to be a prophetic emblem of that 
period. — Ed. 

1 Rev. xiii. 8, 12. 



124 INFANT BAPTISM A 

to regain the mastery of the world ; while the 
numberless bands of his auxiliaries and sate- 
lites — Baptismal Regeneration, Sacramental 
Efficacy, Formalism, Mysticism, and Political 
Intrigue — in diverse array, and with motley 
banners, are mustering, thick and fast, to the 
onset. Every thing betokens the coming on 
of the final struggle between the powers of 
Light and of Darkness. This combat Protest- 
antism is in no condition to meet successfully. 
By retaining Infant Baptism, she keeps in her 
very citadel the chief supporter and prime 
minister of the foe ; insidiously sapping her 
strength, betraying her defences, spiking her 
artillery, and waiting but for a fitting moment 
to lay her, prostrate and helpless, at the feet 
of her victorious enemy. Down with the trai- 
tor! Tear ofi* his disguise, and lay bare be- 
neath it the uniform of the Papacy ! Wash hig 
painted face, and read on his brow " the mark 
of the Beast." Thus detected and renounced 
send him back to the camp of Antichrist, 
where he belongs. Then, and not till then, 
may the Protestant host, united under the 
broad standard of " the truth as it is in Jesus,'' 
formed in Gospel order, and moving on to the 



PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 125 

exulting war-cry, " One Lord, one Faith, one 
Baptism," hope to scatter the forces of Super- 
stition and Falsehood, and bear the uplifted 
ensign of Salvation in triumph over the world. 



I 



THE END, 



VALUABLE BOOKS 

PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETf 

118 ARCH STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



COMPLETE WORKS OP ANDREW FULLER. 

THREE VOLUMES, OCTAVO. 

The complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller; with 
a Memoir of the author, aiwi a likeness. Price $6 00 
in cloth or sheep ; $6 50 in half calf or turkey morocco. 

*' Fuller's Works might, without any very remarkable impro- 
priety, be designated an Encyclopedia of Polemic, Doctrinal, 
and Practical Theology. With giant steps he traverses the 
whole empire of revelation, and of reason as its handmaid. 
He is the Bacon of Scripture. It is a Library in itself. The 
Bible and these Works will suffice to make any man a first rate 
theologian." — Rev, Dr, Campbell in the London Christian Wit" 
ness, 

BAPTISM IN ITS MODE AND SUBJECTS. 

BY ALEXANDER CARSON. 

This work contains a brief Memoir of the author, 
with his reply to Rev. Dr< Miller, &c. One octavo 
volume of 550 pages. Price $1 50 in sheep or cloth ; 
$1 60 in half calf or half turkey morocco. 

*' Let those who think that the solemn immersion of believers 
in water is not bap'-ism, answer, if they can, fairly and withom 
evasion, the learned, candid, and decisive work of Mr. Carson.'*^ 
-^Rev, B. H. Draper, LL. D, 

HISTORY OF BAPTISM, 

BY ISAAC T. HINTON. 

A History of Baptism, from inspired and uninspired 
writings. This is a beautiful edition, from new stereo- 
type plates. It has also been published in England. 
l2mo. 348 pages. Price 65 cents in cloth or sheep ^ 



THE TERMS OF COMMUNION, 

BY KOBERT B. C. EOWELL. 

A beautiful edition from new stereotype plates, and 
the price reduced to 60 cents. Its wide circulation in 
this country, and its republication iu England, are the 
best testimonials of its usefulne-ss. 

THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 

BY JOHN BUNYAN. 

This edition contains a likeness of the author and four 
engravings. Price 60 cents. 

THE HOLY WAR. 

BY JOHN BUKYAN. 

A new edition with six engravings. Price 60 cents. 
** One of the greatest books ever made." — Albert Barnes. 

MARRIED LIFE.-A WEDDING GIFT. 

•BY-> JOSEPH BELCHER. 

An elegant miniature volume of 128 pages, with gilt 
edges and ornamental covers. Price 30 cents. 

SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 

BY R. PENGILLY. 

The many thousands of this able work which have 
been sold attest its excellence. It contains 90 pages 
Price 25 cents in cloth, and 6J in paper covers. 

PENGILLY'S GUIDE AND BOOTH'S VINDIOATION. 

This volume contains two treatises. First, Pengilly's 
Scripture Guide to Baptism. Second, Booth's Vindica- 
tion of the Baptists from the charge of bigotry, in refus- 
ing communion at the Lord's table to Paedobaptists. 
Price, 25 cents in cloth, and 20 cents in half binding. 

SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT. 

EY SALIUEL W. LYNE*. 

One volume, 12 mo. 231 pages. Price 60 cents. 

TRACTS. 

One hundred and seventy-one Tracts are published 
by the Society and sold at the rate of 15 pages for a 
cent; 375 pages for 25 cents ; 1500 pages for one dollar. 



'f 



FREY'S SCRIPTURE TYPES. 

The Scripture Types. A course of Lectui 
Joseph Samuel C. F. Frey. A new edition, in two to! 
umes. Vol. I. contains 306 pages ; Vol. II. 320 pages. 
Price, 50 cents per volume Also, in one volume, for 
$1.00, in cloth, sheep, or half-calf. 

" The peculiar circumstances of the author, as a natural des- 
cendant of Abraham ; he having sustained, for a number of 
years, the office of a Jewish Rabbi, for which he had been regu- 
larly educated; gave him an opportunity of obtaining a supe- 
rior knowledge of the Mosaic dispensation, and of the Jewish 
ceremonies and customs, both ancient and modem, thus ena- 
bling him to embody in these Lectures much valuable informa- 
tion. This work should be found in the Libraries of Bible 
Classes and Sunday Schools." — Spencer H. Cone, D. D. 

" Having carefully read this work of Rev. C. F. Frey, I do 
very cordially unite in recommending it as one of much Value. 
It is, though abounding in information, hi2;hly devotional and 
practical in its character." — William B. Williams. D, D* 

THE BAPTIST HARP. 

The Baptist Harp: anew collection of Hymns for 
the Closet, the Family, Social Worship and Eevivals. 
It contains 583 Hymns and 5 Doxologies. Two sets of 
stereotype plates have been prepared, large and small. 
The pocket edition is only 25 cents. The medium size 
(printed from the same plates, but with a wide margin,) 
30 cents. The large edition, 35 cents. Various styles 
of ornamental binding, according to price, from 35 cents 
to $2.00. 

" We hesitate not to say that in some important respects, ^ 
must give it a decided preference to anj- volume of the kint 
we have ever yet seen." — Christian Eevieio^ Boston^ Mass, 

"We are willing to pronounce it unsurpassed, nay unequalled.*^ 
— Southern Baptist, Charleston, S. C 

INFANT BAPTISM. 

The Scriptural and Historical Arguments for Infant 
Baptism examined ; by J. Torrey Smith, A. M. An 
able work on the Covenant of Circumcision, with a re- 
view of the New Testament Arguments, and thorough 
examination of the Historical Evidence derived from 
the Christian writers of the first five centuries. 25 cts. 



COMMUNION. 
BY T. r. CURTIS. 

Communion ; or the "Distinction between Chi-Jctlan 
land Church Fellowship, and between Communion and 
its Symbols, embracing a review of the arguments of 
Rev. Robert Hall, and Rev. Baptist W. Noel in favor 
of mixed communion. A work logical in argument, 
calm in tone, elegant in style, devout in spirit, and 
'deeply imbued with the mind of Christ. 12mo. 75 cts. 
THE DEAOONSHIP. 

The Deaconship, by Robert B. C. Howell, D. D. 
In nine chapters the author shows the origin and nature 
of the Deacon^s office, the qualifications for the ofi&ce, 
&o. 154 pages, 18mo. Price, 30 cents. 

THE BAPTIST MANUAL. 
A Selection of Doctrinal and Practical Tracts, exhi 
biting the sentiments and practices of the denomination. 
12mo., 384 pages. 50 cents. 

CLOSING- SCENES. 

Closing Scenes, or Death Beds of Young Persons. 
A book abounding in narratives of thrilling interest. 
194 pages, 18 mo. Price, 25 cents, in half-binding ; 30 
cents, in cloth. 

BAXTER'S SAINTS' REST. 

A beautiful edition ; bound in cloth. 444 pages. 40 cts. 

BAXTER'S CALL. 

Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. 18mo. 177 pages. 
15 cents. 

PIKE'S GUIDE TO YOUNG- DISCIPLES. 

An excellent work for Young Converts. 465 pages. 
40 cents. 

"^ BAPTIST FAMILY LIBRARY. 
In six volumes, in uniform binding. Price $3.75. 

1. Hinton's History cf Baptism. 4. Bunyan's Holy War. 

2. Howell on Communion. 5. Baptist j\Ianual. 

3. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 6. Booth's Reign of Grace^ 

SUNDAY SCHOOL BOOKS. 
The Society has issued many interesting volumes for 
Sunday School Libraries. The publications of the 
American Sunday School Union, and of the American 
Tract Society are also kept for sale* 



AM£B11;AN BArTTSr publication?^ S0CIST7* 

THE 

DEACONSHIP 

BY 

R. B. C. HOWELL, D.D. 



"From the ^' Christian Review,^^ Rev, S. F. Smith, Editor, 
*< This is the only treatise or extended discussion on the 
office of Deacons, which we have ever seen. The subject 
has occasionally called forth an essay at a minister's 
meeting, which has been read, approved, and laid aside; 
but nothing of any importance has before found its way 
to the press. The treatise of Dr. Howell is calm, clear, 
full, and Scriptural. In nine brief chapters, it exhibits the 
origin and nature of the Deacon's office, the qualifications 
for the office, the election and ordination of deacons, their 
general and specific duties ; the means of creating and sus- 
taining the necessary revenues in the church, deaconesses, 
the duty of the churches and the ministry to co-operate 
with the deacons, and the importance of faithfulness on 
the part of the latter. The chapter on the revenues of 
churches seems to us to have but a loose connection with 
the subject under discussion ; and although its principles 
may be sound, we doubt if it had not better been reserved 
for another occasion. Dr. H. takes the ground that the 
office of deacons is perpetual, and that their calling is to 
take care of all the temporalities of the church. Hence 
he assigns to them not only the customary duties of dea- 
cons, but also, ex-officiis, the duties which in New England 
are commonly devolved on a Society's Committee and 
Treasurer. He recommends that a person elected by the 
church to the office of deacon should be presented by the 
church to the pastor, who is to pray for and afterwards 
lo lay his hands upon him. He suggests that in all well 
egulated Baptist churches, there are female members who 



AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 

are, though not by express designation, deaconesses; thai 
they are needed and useful in all countries, and in oriental 
ones, indispensable. Our modern churches have retained 
the office without the name. The volume is a sound and 
Bober exhibition of opinions which we believe are, on the 
whole, capable of being sustained by Scripture, — well 
arranged and well expressed. We hop^e the little book 
will find a wide circulation, and do good in promoting 
among the churches uniformity, order and piety." 



From the *^ Baptist Memorial,''' Rev, Dr. Bdbcock, Editor, 
" Pastors and Deacons should both study this treatise. '> 



From the Rev. J. Newton Brown, Editor of the " Encyclo* 
pedia of Religious Knowledge. ^^ 
** Several years ago, I was led to examine the subject 
of the Deaconship with special care, and regretted that 
there was nothing in the shape of a treatise upon it at all 
satisfactory. I then embodied my inquiries in the form 
of a sermon, and delivered it on two occasions, by request, 
at the ordination of Deacons. The sermon was so much 
approved as to be solicited for tne press ; but I never pub- 
lished it. I mention the fact to show you the preparation 
of my mind for examining with care the work of Dr. 
Howell ; and I rejoice to say that I found the subject 
treated by him so perfectly to my satisfaction, that I shall 
never be tempted again to give my discourse to the press. 
I fervently bless the Head of the Church for directing Dr. 
Howell's attention to the subject. I thank him, and I thank 
the American Baptist Publication Society, for a work on 
the office of Deacons, which I trust is destined to form an 
era in our churches, of clear, definite, settled, scriptural 
views and practice. How really astonishing it is to a re- 
iiectmg mind, that while so many hundreds of volumes 
have been written on the Pastoral office, and with such excel- 
lent effect, we have had absolutely nothing before, worthy 
to be called a treatise on the office of Deacon — though 
the latter is of equ-ally Divine Institution and Authority— 
and scarcely inferior in importance, all things considered, 
to the well-being and efficiency of a church of Christ. 
Such a work is truly an augury of better times." 



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